Wonder drugs

Bottomley, A., Thomas, R., van Steen, K., Flechtner, H., Djulbegovic, B. 2002. Human recombinant erythropoietin and quality of life a wonder drug or something to wonder about Lancet Oncology 3(3), 145-153. 

Taken together, HDACis are promising candidates for harnessing neuronal loss, both in apoptotic models in vitro, and in several models of neurodegenerescence in vivo. However, they are not the wonder drug and improvement in different ways need to be performed. 

I particularly recalled my clinical work in 1958 and early 1959, when my assignment was to care for hospitalized soldiers and their dependents. We had few drugs to work with in those days. We relied mainly on Thorazine in the treatment of psychotic patients. It was the first major tranquilizer and preceded by decades the wonder drugs used today. For less severely disturbed patients we used meprobamate (Equanil) which has all but disappeared from today s pharmacies. In fact, the value of lithium, for mood swings, was just beginning to be accepted. 

Moreover, experimental studies are often inconclusive. Rarely does the antidepressant medication far exceed the placebo in effectiveness, and sometimes subjects in the control group actually report greater symptom relief Equally important, the newer classes of antidepressant medications (the SSRIs), hyped as the latest wonder drugs, are actually no more effective than categories of medications (for example, tricyclic antidepressants) that were discovered in the late I950s. Finally, these studies have no way to assess whether medications work better than positive life changes. The sociologist Allan Horwitz asks ... 

At the borderline between semisynthesis and patterned synthesis, versatile total syntheses may provide access to diversified bioactive structures. Classically, analogues of the active drug are sought that avoid the resistance developed by pathogens and show reduced side effects. In lucky cases, chemical simplification has afforded the wonder drug. This is the case of sodium valproate (2-propylvaleric acid sodium salt), which was synthesized in the fall of the XIX century and nearly a hundred years later became a leading drug in the treatment of epilepsy. 

Despite being a wonder drug against malaria, quinine in therapeutic doses can cause various side-effects, e.g. nausea, vomiting and cinchonism, and in some patients pulmonary oedema. It may also cause paralysis if accidentally injected into a nerve. An overdose of quinine may have fatal consequences. Non-medicinal uses of quinine include its uses as a flavouring agent in tonic water and bitter lemon. 

Initially, doses of 20 or 40 mg were administered intramuscularly, and within 15 minutes the patients had less motor rigidity and were able to move more freely. Even when used orally, at 10 mg thrice daily, the responses were remarkable. In some cases the tremor was diminished, and in others it was exaggerated, but in general the mental status of the patients was brightened, without producing "psychic" effects. Banisterine became the wonder drug of the year, the feature stuff of the Sunday Supplements. 

Both of these wonder drugs boost the synaptic efficacy of norepinephrine and serotonin, but they do so in quite different ways. Isoniazid blocks the action of the amine degrading enzyme monoamine oxidase, allowing the released amines to stay longer in the synaptic cleft (because they are... 

Scottish biochemist Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) discovers penicillin. He observes that the mold Penicillium notatum inhibits the growth of some bacteria. This is the first antibiotic, and it opens a new era of wonder drugs to combat infection and disease. 

Ketamine and other NMDA antagonists were first thought to be wonder drugs. Not only were they excel-... 

Geary TG (2005) Ivermectin 20 years on maturation of a wonder drug. Trends Parasitol 21 530-532... 

Figure 6.1 Since the 1980s, Ritalin has won a reputation among many parents, doctors, and teachers as a wonder drug that is capable of helping inattentive and poorly behaved children become more manageable, better students. As this cover of Time magazine from November 1998 demonstrates, however, some experts question whether Ritalin should be used so frequently, and whether it is right for every child who shows symptoms similar to those of ADHD.

Despite spectacular advances in pharmacology and pharmacy and Federal control, there are too many people poisoned as a result of medical mismanagement, pharmaceutical company propaganda, and public advertising of the latest cure-all wonder drug. This fact alone is likely to keep the forensic toxicologist in business with indefinite job security. 

Penicillin, the Wonder Drug. Available from . 

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