Modern pharmaceutical industries have faced significant challenges to deliver safe and effective medicines because of significant toxicity and severe side effects of discovered drugs. On the other hand, recent developments and advances in system-based pharmacology aim to address these challenges. In this chapter, we provide an overview of quantitative methods for system-based drug discovery. System-based drug discovery integrates chemical, molecular, and systematic information and applies this knowledge to the designing of small molecules with controlled toxicity and minimized side effects. First, we discuss current approaches for drug discovery and outline their advantages and disadvantages. Next, we introduce basic concepts of systems pharmacology with an emphasis on ligand-based drug discovery and target identification. This is followed by a discussion on structure-based drug design and statistical tools for pharmaceutical research. Finally, we provide an overview of future directions in systems pharmacology that will guide further developments.

This book brings together drug design practitioners, all leaders in their field, who are actively advancing the field of quantitative methods to guide drug discovery, from structure-based design to empirical statistical models - from rule-based approaches to toxicology to the fields of bioinformatics and systems biology. The aim of the book is to show how various facets of the drug discovery process can be addressed in a quantitative fashion (ie: numerical analysis to enable robust predictions to be made). Each chapter includes a brief review of the topic showing the historical development of.

This contributed volume presents an overview of concepts, methods, and applications used in several quantitative areas of drug research, development, and marketing. Chapters bring together the theories and applications of various disciplines, allowing readers to learn more about quantitative fields, and to better recognize the differences between them. Because it provides a thorough overview, this will serve as a self-contained resource for readers interested in the pharmaceutical industry, and the quantitative methods that serve as its foundation. Specific disciplines covered include: Biostatistics Pharmacometrics Genomics Bioinformatics Pharmacoepidemiology Commercial analytics Operational analytics Quantitative Methods in Pharmaceutical Research and Development is ideal for undergraduate students interested in learning about real-world applications of quantitative methods, and the potential career options open to them. It will also be of interest to experts working in these areas.

Introducing the most recent advances in crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance, molecular modeling techniques, and computational combinatorial chemistry, this unique, interdisciplinary reference explains the application of three-dimensional structural information in the design of pharmaceutical drugs. Furnishing authoritative analyses by world-renowned experts, Structure-Based Drug Design discusses protein structure-based design in optimizing HIV protease inhibitors and details the biochemical, genetic, and clinical data on HIV-1 reverse transcriptase presents recent results on the high-resolution three-dimensional structure of the catalytic core domain of HIV-1 integrase as a foundation for divergent combination therapy focuses on structure-based design strategies for uncovering receptor antagonists to treat inflammatory diseases demonstrates a systematic approach to the design of inhibitory compounds in cancer treatment reviews current knowledge on the Interleukin-1 (IL-1) system and progress in the development of IL-1 modulators describes the influence of structure-based methods in designing capsid-binding inhibitors for relief of the common cold and much more!

Since the publication of the first edition, the field has changed dramatically. Scientists can now explicitly consider 3D features in quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) studies and often have the 3D structure of the macromolecular target to guide the 3D QSAR. Improvements in computer hardware and software have also made the methods

Modern medicine is undergoing a paradigm shift from a "one-size-fits-all" strategy to a more precise patient-customized therapy and medication plan. While the success of precision medicine relies on the level of pharmacogenomic knowledge, dissecting the genetic mechanisms of drug response in a sufficient detail requires powerful computational tools. Quantitative Methods for Precision Medicine: Pharmacogenomics in Action presents the advanced statistical methods for mapping pharmacogenetic control by integrating pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic principles of drug-body interactions. Beyond traditional reductionist-based statistical genetic approaches, statistical formulization in this book synthesizes elements of multiple disciplines to infer, visualize, and track how pharmacogenes interact together as an intricate but well-coordinated system to mediate patient-specific drug response. Features: Functional and systems mapping models to characterize the genetic architecture of multiple medication processes Statistical methods for analyzing informative missing data in pharmacogenetic association studies Functional graph theory of inferring genetic interaction networks from association data Leveraging the concept of epistasis to capture its bidirectional, signed and weighted properties Modeling gene-induced cell-cell crosstalk and its impact on drug response A graph model of drug-drug interactions in combination therapies Critical methodological issues to improve pharmacogenomic research as the cornerstone of precision medicine This book is suitable for graduate students and researchers in the fields of biology, medicine, bioinformatics and drug design and delivery who are interested in statistical and computational modelling of biological processes and systems. It may also serve as a major reference for applied mathematicians, computer scientists, and statisticians who attempt to develop algorithmic tools for genetic mapping, systems pharmacogenomics and systems biology. It can be used as both a textbook and research reference. Professionals in pharmaceutical sectors who design drugs and clinical doctors who deliver drugs will also find it useful.

In 2011, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in collaboration with leaders from the pharmaceutical industry and the academic community, published a white paper describing the emerging discipline of Quantitative Systems Pharmacology (QSP), and recommended the establishment of NIH-supported interdisciplinary research and training programs for QSP. QSP is still in its infancy, but has tremendous potential to change the way we approach biomedical research. QSP is really the integration of two disciplines that have been increasingly useful in biomedical research; “Systems Biology” and “Quantitative Pharmacology”. Systems Biology is the field of biomedical research that seeks to understand the relationships between genes and biologically active molecules to develop qualitative models of these systems; and Quantitative Pharmacology is the field of biomedical research that seeks to use computer aided modeling and simulation to increase our understanding of the pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD) of drugs, and to aid in the design of pre-clinical and clinical experiments. The purpose of QSP modeling is to develop quantitative computer models of biological systems and disease processes, and the effects of drug PK and PD on those systems. QSP models allow testing of numerous potential experiments “in-silico” to eliminate those associated with a low probability of success, avoiding the potential costs of evaluating all of those failed experiments in the real world. At the same time, QSP models allow us to develop our understanding of the interaction between drugs and biological systems in a more systematic and rigorous manner. As the need to be more cost-efficient in the use of research funding increases, biomedical researchers will be required to gain the maximum insight from each experiment that is conducted. This need is even more acute in the pharmaceutical industry, where there is tremendous competition to develop innovative therapies in a highly regulated environment, combined with very high research and development (R&D) costs for bringing new drugs to market (~$1.3 billion/drug). Analogous modeling & simulation approaches have been successfully integrated into other disciplines to improve the fundamental understanding of the science and to improve the efficiency of R&D (e.g., physics, engineering, economics, etc.). The biomedical research community has been slow to integrate computer aided modeling & simulation for many reasons: including the perception that biology and pharmacology are “too complex” and “too variable” to be modeled with mathematical equations; a lack of adequate graduate training programs; and the lack of support from government agencies that fund biomedical research. However, there is an active community of researchers in the pharmaceutical industry, the academic community, and government agencies that develop QSP and quantitative systems biology models and apply them both to better characterize and predict drug pharmacology and disease processes; as well as to improve efficiency and productivity in pharmaceutical R&D.