Therapeutic Inhibitors: Natural Product Options through Computer-Aided Drug Design

Abstract

Drug repurposing involves reusing an active pharmaceutical ingredient that is already in the market and drugs that were unsuccessful in their clinical phases of development for a new indication. It has numerous benefits in drug development. Therapeutic inhibitors are agents that could be of synthetic or natural source with the ability to trigger the down-regulation of an enzyme or protein, thereby inducing therapeutic effect(s). Researchers have embraced synthetic methods in searching for therapeutic molecules through structural activity relationships and other means in the past and recent times. Despite these synthetic drugs, the morbidity and mortality rate of ailment and disease affecting humanity remains overwhelming. Research has shown that solutions to these challenges can be attempted through drug repurposing. In the past, natural products in raw forms have been utilized in traditional, complementary medicine to manage and treat diseases and illnesses, as there are molecules in use today as drugs, which originated from plants and other natural sources. Studies on natural products have led to diverse natural product databases that can serve as a source of repurposing agents. There are also databases for protein and enzymes of human origin, which have an enormous role in the in-silico drug repurposing approach.