How do you find cures for diseases or illnesses?

Question

How does anyone start to find cures for diseases and illnesses? do they test a bunch of random chemicals and ingrediants to see what works?

Answer 1

It's not quite that bad. If there are existing drugs for an illness, chemists study the existing drugs and look for other molecules with similar features.

Drugs that have already been tested for safety are worth testing to see if they have any effect on a disease, even if that's not the one they were developed for.

There are some efforts to use lots of home computers to find cures, I participate in Community TSC:

http://www.childhooddiseases.org

Answer 2

Generally, it is a multi-step process that involves locating the cause of the disease, how it is transmitted, what systems in the body it affects, etc. Usually the cure involves finding something to inhibit the ability of the diseased cells to replicate or spread and also to damage or destroy the infected cells. Certain chemical processes affect different kinds of cells in different ways. One of the reason cancer doesn't have a cure is because it is constantly different and the process of chemo destroys many different kinds of cells, healthy or otherwise in an effort to kill the target cells.
Anyway, once the cells are isolated they work on ways to destroy the cells. First in a test tube type environment, then in lab animals, and if all is well, moving on the clinical trials with humans.

Answer 3

The first step is to identify enzymes and genes responsible for some important disease event. The next step is to find compounds that interact with these molecules. This is done using computers and huge molecular libraries. For example, I'm working on interactions of millions of theoretical compounds with a protein kinase responsible for the replication of cancerous cells. Once a promising compound is found, it's off to the testing phase. We must determine how this compound reacts with other parts of the body and possible side effects. Then, we have to determine if we can produce large amounts of the drug. Sometimes, it's easy to make a drug in the lab but it's nearly impossible to scale that up to any useful production amount. If we can find methods to synthesize it, we than have to work on a delivery system. After all this it's off to animal testing, then testing in healthy humans, and finally testing in sick people and healthy people together. If it passes all these trials, we then market the drug. It takes anywhere from 15 to 20 years to go from computer to usable treatment.

Answer 4

There are hard working scientists and researchers all over the world, in almost every country working on finding the right combination of chemicals, herbs or what ever that will cure diseases. They put their lives into their work. Imagine all the people who spend their lives just searching for that one cure for one disease. They are to be admired and appreciated for their hard work.

Answer 5

You find what causes the disease or illness...Like a gene. Once you have that, then you can find ways to cure it.