Reducing side effects in commonly used drugs
Published 7 May 2018
New research from The Australian National University (ANU) has drilled down to the molecular level to find similarities across six pharmaceutical drugs used in pain relief, dentist anaesthetic, and treatment of epilepsy, in a bid to find a way to reduce unwanted side-effects.
One in five Australians experience chronic pain, and 250,000 Australians live with epilepsy, 40 per cent of which are children.
Until now, researchers have known that drugs which treat pain and epilepsy are effective, some of which have even been used clinically since the 1950s. But molecular details of how they work and why they cause side effects have not been studied until relatively recently, thanks to new technology.
Dr Amanda Buyan from the ANU Research School of Biology said thanks to the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) super computing power at ANU, researchers are now able to run bigger and more complex simulations to get a better picture of what is going on.
"Understanding the molecular detail of how they work gives us clues to why these drugs might be effecting one part of the body that we want, but may also effect part of the body that we don't want to effect," she said.
"Understanding this can hopefully inform future scientists working on drug discovery that this is how we think these types of drugs work."
Dr Buyan hopes the research will better inform scientists about the possibility of changing the structure of existing drugs, or in designing a new drug to make sure that it does what is intended without the side effects.
"I hope that it leads to drugs being changed slightly to be more specific or lead to a different avenue that might be more fruitful."
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As an epilepsy sufferer for 44 years, I have been on many different medications, until one or two have been found for control of seizures. This is naturally very frustrating.
These all cause other side effects, and can also react to another medication one is taking for another health problem.
It would be wonderful to have one medication for a specific health problem that doesn't affect another or have any side effects, but I suppose this is asking for a miracle!
I look forward to hearing more news on this subject.
@lesmal Interesting as I have been taking epilepsy meds for 36 years even though I had surgery 6 years ago! It was successful so long as I take 2 meds daily instead of the 3 I took before! Interaction with other meds for other problems seems a fact of life I agree!
@Mrs E Larkin If I had the opportunity of surgery, I would have opted for this many years' ago, however coming from Africa we never had enough qualified Neurologists or Surgeons to do extensive operations, unless one was covered by an expensive Medical Aid system. Two medications control my seizures, I've been on the same ones for over 25 years and won't change now!
Control through medication is the key to contented life with Epilepsy! I have that now after surgery also with 2 meds. If this were the case before surgery I would not have resorted to such a choice! Long may it last for us both lesmal!
