Software to bring down tests on animals

BANGALORE: Animal lovers world over will finally have something to smile about. A knowledge-based drug design and discovery platform developed in India may bring down the need for laboratory tests on animals by over 95 per cent, claim the developers.
Lucknow-based Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI) and Delhi-based Invenio Bio solutions have designed the software DDAssist (Drug Discovery Assistant) with four components -- a drug database, ADME database, dropped drug database and protein-ligand interaction database.It was formally launched earlier this month.
"With the introduction of this software, all molecules synthesized by medicinal chemists need not be tested on animals. The software will help us decide whether a molecule or similar molecules were studied earlier for the biological activity one is looking for,'''' Dr Sudhir Sinha, who heads the High-Throughput Screening Laboratory at CDRI told `The Times of India'' via e-mail. The software is expected to accelerate drug discovery process, significantly reducing time and costs too.
"In vitro testing (in test tubes) of drug-like molecules coupled with DDAssist software is likely to reduce the use of laboratory animals by over 95 per cent, since on an average, less than 5 per cent of all molecules will qualify for in vivo (inside the body) testing in animals,'''' he explains.
The drug database has compiled all available information about drugs approved by various regulatory authorities the world over. ``This database will give us an idea about the newness of the molecule discovered, as a new drug,'''' says Sinha. Similar software developed by foreign companies is in the market but those brands could cost as much as 100 times more, and need more periodical upgrades.
A ''Dropped Drug'' database lists all drugs which have been withdrawn from the market after post-marketing toxicity reports. The protein-ligand interaction database gives information about the possible targets in the tissue/cell where the new drug is likely to act.
The ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion) database brings in four important components which should be taken into consideration when a drug has to develop further. ``The database includes information about all the four parameters for known drugs and drugs under development as well. All these four properties can be predicted for a new drug to some extent using this software,'''' says Sinha. DDAssist also gives an idea about drug-drug interactions, critical in development of new drugs.
This is how the software works: it matches structures of active molecules (so called `hits''), selected by biological screening processes, with structures already present in specific databases to determine their potential as new drug candidates.
CDRI and Invenio Bio solutions are in the process of patenting the application which will be marketed worldwide.