Posted by PeterJ on April 28, 2000, at 2:21:30
In reply to Re: Investigational drug assay and specific receptors., posted by Dr. Fried on April 28, 2000, at 0:46:08
There is definitely some genetic variation in the amino acid sequence
of many receptors within human populations. This "polymorphism" is one
possible reason for the variation in drug response. In addition, there
are tremendous individual differences in other aspects of brain structure
and function (caused by both genetic and enviromental factors) which may
affect drug response.Targetting receptors is a good idea in theory, and has in fact produced
some very useful drugs. The set of facts we know about receptors is
pretty large. On the other hand, the set of facts we _don't_ know is much
larger. So drug development tends to focus on a few established connections,
e.g. blocking serotonin uptake helps some depressed patients, a combination
of 5-HT and DA blockade helps some psychotic patients, and so on. But we
only have a vague idea why a certain receptor affects a specific disease, and
we still can't tailor drugs to fit the variations in receptors found in
different individuals.Peter
poster:PeterJ
thread:31294
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000420/msgs/31547.html