Designing Drugs - Creating selective drugs to combat illnesses
Adrenaline is a powerful drug. Not only does it increase airflow into the lungs, it increases heart rate and blood pressure dramatically. Asthmatic patients need a drug that increases airflow into the lungs, as adrenaline does, but does not affect the heart. This lecture will discuss how we can change the chemical structure of adrenaline, in order to develop new drugs that target the lungs selectively, like salbutamol, and create Ventolin inhalers.