Given that proteins imbue cells and tissues with their functions, it’s no wonder malfunctioning proteins are implicated as a cause of many ailments. Indeed, this is the reason why most drugs target proteins. Nonetheless, 90% of drug candidates fail clinical trials (Dowden and Munro 2019) and major reasons for failure include toxicity and a lack of efficacy (Sun et al 2022). Why? Drug candidates often impact proteins whose manipulation leads to detrimental effects on cell biology. Ultimately, targeting these proteins can lead to unacceptable levels of toxicity for patients. In this post, we outline the properties of a better drug target and highlight the ways comprehensive proteomics technologies can help drugmakers identify such targets.
When researchers create drugs, they often design them to inhibit or activate a specific protein. To narrow research focus and potentially save time and money, proteins targeted by drugs should ideally have the properties described below. Importantly, biology is always complicated, and a drug target will have some mixture of these properties but will rarely be ideal. It is the essential job of the drug-maker to determine when risks associated with bad properties are low enough to confidently move forward with drug development.
While traditional proteomics technologies are often difficult to use and only measure small fractions of the proteome at once, novel technologies are designed to be more sensitive, scalable, and easy-to-use. The Nautilus Proteome Analysis Platform in particular is designed to measure 95% percent of the human proteome at the single-molecule level. Some ways researchers can use such comprehensive proteome analysis for target validation during drug development include:
Creating a new drug is a long, complicated, and expensive process that leads to many failures as well as wasted time and money. We cannot maintain this status quo if we want to treat as many people as possible with affordable, accessible drugs, especially in the face of global crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. We are excited for researchers to use next-generation proteomics technologies like the Nautilus Proteome Analysis Platform to enhance the efficiency of the drug development process and get more affordable treatments to the patients who need them.
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