Drug Discovery in Psychiatric Illness: Mining for Gold

The discovery of truly efficacious treatments that lead to full recovery is a daunting task in psychiatric illness. A systems-based orientation to in vivo pharmacology has been suggested as a way to transform psychiatric drug discovery and development. A critical catalyst in the success of recent sy...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Schizophrenia bulletin 2009-03, Vol.35 (2), p.287-292
Main Authors: Elmer, Greg I., Kafkafi, Neri
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Brain - drug effects
Brain - physiopathology
Data Collection
Disease Models, Animal
Drug Discovery - methods
Drug Evaluation, Preclinical - methods
Hallucinogens - pharmacology
Humans
Medical sciences
Mental Disorders - drug therapy
Mental Disorders - physiopathology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Psychoses
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia - drug therapy
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Summary:The discovery of truly efficacious treatments that lead to full recovery is a daunting task in psychiatric illness. A systems-based orientation to in vivo pharmacology has been suggested as a way to transform psychiatric drug discovery and development. A critical catalyst in the success of recent systems biology efforts has been the incorporation of data mining strategies. Our approach to the drug discovery problem has been to utilize the whole animal to provide a systems response that is subsequently mined for predictive attributes with known psychopharmacological value. Our in vivo data mining approach, termed Pattern Array, establishes a framework for screening novel chemical entities based upon a response that represents the net pharmacological effect on the system of interest, namely the central nervous system (CNS). Large scale screening of small molecules by non-conventional approaches such as this at a systems level may improve the identification of novel chemical entities with psychiatric utility. This type of approach will compliment the more labor-intensive models based upon construct validity. It will take the collective effort of many disciplines and numerous strategies in close association with clinical colleagues to address quality of life issues and breakthrough treatment barriers in psychiatric illness.
ISSN:0586-7614
1745-1701
DOI:10.1093/schbul/sbn194