An Example of In Silico Drug Screening for Senolytic Compounds

The average small molecule drug development program starts with a mechanism, an intended outcome such as inhibition, and then screening of as many molecules as possible from the libraries. Sometimes it is possible to make educated guesses as to what types of molecule are more likely to be useful, but often screening must be very broad and with little direction. In principle, low cost computation makes it possible to dramatically reduce the cost of discovery of useful molecules given a specific target mechanism. This shift from physical to in silico screening has been underway for a while, for example at Insilico Medicine, but is still a work in progress. Small molecule medicine has its limitations, and in the future it seems likely that much of its present portfolio will be overtaken by gene therapies that can act precisely on target mechanisms: greater efficacy, far fewer side-effects, no expensive initial screening needed. Extending the life span of small molecule development into that era will require a dramatic reduction in its costs. At the end of the day the whole industry revolves around how much time and effort is needed to produce the prospect of a given benefit to patients. The materials here are an example of the present state of the art when it comes to the use of in silico initial screening of small molecules. It needs something like the senolytics field to spur the development of better infrastructure for small molecule development. Small molecules...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs