# What is target drug therapy or target drug? Hope in the future is to revolutionized medicine **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 22, 2015, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-target-drug-therapy-or-target-drug-hope-in-the-future-is-to-revolutionized-medicine/713366 "2015-02-22T22:16:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2015, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-target-drug-therapy-or-target-drug-hope-in-the-future-is-to-revolutionized-medicine/713366/1 "2015-02-22T22:16:27Z")
What is target drug therapy or target drug? How will it work? Where they hope in the future is to revolutionized medicine. Most drugs have side effects, example cancer chemotherapy. It is easy to give lethal toxin to kill the cancer but it would also damage so much of you body thus killing you. So it is hard to come up with chemotherapy that kills the cancer but is safe and less side effects. Much what we learn in high school like finding the molecular basis of a disease, then finding a compound that alters that or binding to certain receptors or target specific enzymes is over simplified. In real world it is much more complex than want you learn in high school of lock key analogy A affects B interactions. Here what poster was explaining to me in thread of why it takes long time make new drugs. Why it is so complex. \*\* > [@](#): > > There are more than 20,000 protein-producing genes in the human body, many of which produce multiple proteins. There are several times more whose function is to regulate those proteins. Those aren’t just necessarily A affects B interactions, either. Protein A could affect dozens, or hundreds, or thousands of operations in the body. > > Out of all those millions of actions, reactions and interactions, scientists must find a) which ones are bad, b) something that actually turns the bad off, c) without damaging all the good actions, reactions, and interactions, d) that works consistently enough to be considered “safe and effective,” and e) can actually be produced in the real world.So it is much more complex than takes much more time. \*\* But I read up in the future they hope target drug therapy or target drugs to revolutionized cancer treatment. What is that and how does that work? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-target-drug-therapy-or-target-drug-hope-in-the-future-is-to-revolutionized-medicine/713366/2 "2015-02-23T02:33:49Z")
Numerous targeted drugs already exist, and more are coming down the pipeline all the time. [http://www.mycancergenome.org/content/molecular-medicine/overview-of-targeted-therapies-for-cancer/](http://www.mycancergenome.org/content/molecular-medicine/overview-of-targeted-therapies-for-cancer/) ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-target-drug-therapy-or-target-drug-hope-in-the-future-is-to-revolutionized-medicine/713366/3 "2015-02-23T19:49:21Z")
Using the lock-and-key analogy is still useful. Researchers have already discovered that some cancers can be recognized by a particular protein receptor displayed in the surface of the cancerous cell. For example, some types of Hodgkins Lymphoma\* cells display a cell surface protein called [CD30](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD30). You can think of the CD30 protein like a lock. Along come researchers who develop an antibody to the CD30 protein. Think of this antibody as a key. Now the trick. Chemically link a potent toxin drug to the antibody. This combination is called an antibody-drug conjugate. Now administer the antibody-drug conjugate\*\* only to those patients with Hodgkins Lymphoma who have tested positive for the presence of CD30. The antibody selectively finds the cancer cells and latches onto the CD30 protein like a key fitting into a lock. Then the drug is chemically released and kills the cancer cell. You can thus use a toxin that is much more potent - one that would be too strong for an untargeted therapy. The hope is that the overall idea will be repeatable for various cancer types. 1. Identify a cell surface marker unique to a particular type of cancer. 2. Manufacture an antibody to that cell surface protein. 3. Chemically attach a toxin to that antibody, creating an antibody-drug conjugate. 4. Administer said antibody-drug conjugate as targeted therapy. This will require a change in cancer diagnostics. It will not be sufficient to diagnose “lung cancer.” To determine the best possible drug for a patient will require an analysis of the cancer cells to determine which cell surface proteins are present. - CD30 is also associated with some other types of cancer such as anaplastic large cell lymphoma. The same antibody-drug conjugate is effective against those cancers as well. \*\* This is a real FDA approved drug, [Adcetris](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brentuximab_vedotin), manufactured by Seattle Genetics. ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-target-drug-therapy-or-target-drug-hope-in-the-future-is-to-revolutionized-medicine/713366/4 "2015-02-27T01:33:01Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Numerous targeted drugs already exist, and more are coming down the pipeline all the time. > > [Targeted Therapies - My Cancer Genome](http://www.mycancergenome.org/content/molecular-medicine/overview-of-targeted-therapies-for-cancer/) Yes it explains it there. That traditional chemotherapy work by killing rapidly dividing cells both good and bad cells. Primary goal of targeted drugs. > [@](#): > > A primary goal of targeted therapies is to fight cancer cells with **more precision and potentially fewer side effects**. How it works > [@](#): > > \*\* > target specific antigens found on the cell surface, such as transmembrane receptors or extracellular growth factors. In some cases, monoclonal antibodies are conjugated to radio-isotopes or toxins to allow specific delivery of these cytotoxic agents to the intended cancer cell target.\*\* ---
**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-target-drug-therapy-or-target-drug-hope-in-the-future-is-to-revolutionized-medicine/713366/5 "2015-02-27T02:15:12Z")
Instead of disabling a protein or blocking receptor sites, another approach is to deactivate the gene that produces the disease causing protein. This is called [antisense therapy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisense_therapy) because a complimentary (antisense gene) is created to deactivate the problem gene. The antisense gene fits into the target gene deactivating it (kind of like “69” ;).) > [@](#): > > Antisense therapy is a form of treatment for genetic disorders or infections. When the genetic sequence of a particular gene is known to be causative of a particular disease, it is possible to synthesize a strand of nucleic acid (DNA, RNA or a chemical analogue) that will bind to the messenger RNA (mRNA) produced by that gene and inactivate it, effectively turning that gene “off”. This is because mRNA has to be single stranded for it to be translated. Alternatively, the strand might be targeted to bind a splicing site on pre-mRNA and modify the exon content of an mRNA.[1] > > This synthesized nucleic acid is termed an “anti-sense” oligonucleotide because its base sequence is complementary to the gene’s messenger RNA (mRNA), which is called the “sense” sequence (so that a sense segment of mRNA " 5’-AAGGUC-3’ " would be blocked by the anti-sense mRNA segment " 3’-UUCCAG-5’ "). > > Antisense drugs are being researched to treat a variety of diseases[2][3] such as cancers (including lung cancer, colorectal carcinoma, pancreatic carcinoma, malignant glioma and malignant melanoma), diabetes, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Duchenne muscular dystrophy and diseases such as asthma, arthritis and pouchitis with an inflammatory component. As of 2014 two antisense drugs have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), fomivirsen (marketed as Vitravene) as a treatment for cytomegalovirus retinitis and mipomersen (marketed as Kynamro) for homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-target-drug-therapy-or-target-drug-hope-in-the-future-is-to-revolutionized-medicine/713366/6 "2015-02-27T03:18:40Z")
Another factor being looked into is creating drug molecules that can be guided by an external magnetic field. You guide the drugs to the tumor site, and then you have them activate. This prevents the entire body from having to experience the consequences of the chemo drugs. > **[Magnetic drug targeting--biodistribution of the magnetic carrier and the...](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/13129824/)** > > Magnetic Drug Targeting means the specific delivery of chemotherapeutic agents to their desired targets, e.g. tumors, by using magnetic nanoparticles (ferrofluids) bound to these agents and an external magnetic field which is focused on the tumor.... > **[Electric fields deliver drugs into tumors](https://www.science.org/content/article/electric-fields-deliver-drugs-tumors)** > > New approach could combat hard-to-treat cancers ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-target-drug-therapy-or-target-drug-hope-in-the-future-is-to-revolutionized-medicine/713366/7 "2015-02-28T00:24:26Z")
> [@sweat209](#): > > …Most drugs have side effects, example cancer chemotherapy. It is easy to give lethal toxin to kill the cancer but it would also damage so much of you body thus killing you. So it is hard to come up with chemotherapy that kills the cancer but is safe and less side effects… > [@sweat209](#): > > …That traditional chemotherapy work by killing rapidly dividing cells both good and bad cells… Right. The whole idea behind chemotherapy is that it’s poison, but a form of poison that is believed to kill cancer cells faster than normal cells. So they poison the patient and keep poisoning them in hopes that by the time the cancer is 100% dead, the patient is only 60% dead or something like that.