Scientists engaged in drug discovery can now reduce the use of animal tests with a Drug Discovery Software Platform- "DDAssist" (Drug Discovery Assistant) developed by the Lucknow-based Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI). DDAssist will decrease tests on animals in laboratories by 95 per cent as the molecules used in drug discovery will be screened in vitro through the software before being short-listed for animal tests.
Installing DDAssist, all the synthesized molecules need not be tested on animals. The software helps to decide whether a molecule or similar molecules were studied earlier for the biological activity. The details of the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion profiles of the new molecule can also be ascertained. In vitro testing of the molecules with DDAssist will decrease animal tests by over 95 per cent since on an average less than 5 per cent of all molecules will qualify for in vivo testing in animals, Dr. Sudhir, Sinha, head, High Throughput Screening Laboratory, CDRI told Pharmabiz.com in an interview.
Although it will not completely omit the use of animals, DDAssist will be a boon to several research centres that are awaiting clearances of animal test, said a section of scientists from Indian Institute of Science, National Centre of Biological Sciences and the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) and National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS).
The key factors that led to the development of the software are the cost effectiveness and indigenisation in view of our national needs, said Dr. Sinha and added that DDAssist, is also expected to significantly reduce time and cost of drug discovery.
The application of software is based on four scalable databases. These are disease specific data on diabetes, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disorders and Central Nervous System disorders apart from a list of 'in-use' drugs, failed or withdrawn drugs, candidate drugs, potential drug targets and drug interactions. Its four components are Drug database, ADME database, Dropped drug database and Protein-ligand interaction database. The information from various sources including standard reference books, patents and peer reviewed scientific journals is extracted into the required format and the software is made in such a way that researcher can access it easily to suit the needs.
The high attrition rate of candidate drugs seen during the stages of drug discovery can be now be prevented as DDAssist helps to evaluate the most likely drug candidates quickly to minimize the chances of failure and thus accelerate the drug discovery process. It can match structures of active molecules (so called 'hits'), selected by biological screening processes, with structures already present in specific databases to determine their potential as new drug candidates, stated Dr. Sinha.
Currently, the software is seeking patent and marketing rights. The main customers would be pharma companies and academic institutions involved in new drug discovery. The cost of software was not revealed.
The software is developed jointly by CDRI and Invenio Biosolutions, New Delhi and the latter met the complete cost of development of the software. CDRI's contribution to DDAssist was to provide select scientific data. Three scientists from Biochemistry and Library departments were involved in the project, which took over a year to develop, but the up-gradation and refinement are a continuous process, he said. The role of Invenio Biosolutions was to collect and compile the data and develop a search engine.