Main Article Content

Abstract

Drug discovery can be described as the process of identifying chemical entities that have the potential to become therapeutic agents. A key goal of drug discovery campaigns is the recognition of new molecular entities that may be of value in the treatment of diseases that qualify as presenting unmet medical needs. These diseases do not have definitively useful therapies, and are actually or potentially life-threatening. Marketed drugs at this point in time represent a relatively small number of drug target types. The development of drugs for CNS indications by the pharmaceutical industry generally follows a path from biochemical or cell-based assays to testing in animal models to human clinical trials. In particular, only 8% of CNS drug candidates that enter clinical trials win FDA approval, among the lowest success rates of any therapeutic area. The preclinical studies for drug screening involve the use of animals which is very time consuming and expensive and at times leads to suffering of the used organism. This has forced the researchers to find ways to not only decrease the time involved in drug screening procedures but also decrease the number of animals used and also increase the humane care of animals. To fulfil this goal a number of new in vitro techniques have been devised which are called ‘Alternatives’ or ‘Substitutes’ for use of animals in research involving drugs. These ‘Alternatives’ are defined as the adjuncts which help to decrease the use as well as the number of animals in biomedical research.

Keywords

Drug discovery, CNS drug discovery, Drug development, Preclinical screening.

Article Details

How to Cite
Lingegowda, A. Arul Selvam, Anuja Shaji, Arsha Tommy, Albi Joseph, A. Sudharsan, Emeema Tom, & S. Abhirami. (2023). Animals and alternative models for CNS drug discovery. International Journal of Research in Pharmacology & Pharmacotherapeutics, 12(2), 117-123. https://doi.org/10.61096/ijrpp.v12.iss2.2023.117-123

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