The Chemistry contributions To medicine have helped to develop many advances that save lives constantly, allowing us to live longer, happier and healthier.
Throughout much of human history, medicine and health care were primitive. If people got sick or injured, the doctors could not do more than comfort and keep them clean.
The last 100 years have revolutionized the way doctors treat patients to cure diseases, repair injuries, and even prevent health problems before they occur.
Chemists and chemical engineers with their hard work have helped the evolution of modern medicine by developing novel pharmaceuticals, creating new medical equipment and refining diagnostic processes.
Millions of human lives have been saved and improved by medical advances developed through chemistry (Health and Medicine, 2011).
Main contributions of chemistry in medicine
1- Understanding the human body
Biochemistry is the study of chemistry that occurs within living organisms. It focuses especially on the structure and function of the chemical components of organisms.
Biochemistry governs all living organisms and all the processes that occur in them. Biochemical processes help explain the complexity of life by controlling the flow of information and biochemical signaling and flow of information. chemical energy Through metabolism.
To understand how a disease affects the organism, it is necessary to understand the human body as a whole.
For years, doctors only human anatomy Without understanding its physiological and biochemical functioning. The development of chemistry changed the way the medicine was done (Marek H Dominiczak, S.F.).
2- Manufacture of medicines
Most drugs are involved with the inhibition of a specific enzyme or the expression of a gene.
Blocking the active site of an enzyme requires a"blocker or inhibitor"specifically designed to deactivate enzyme function.
Since enzymes are proteins, their functions differ depending on the form and the inhibitory drugs must be customized for each target enzyme.
From aspirin to antiretrovirals for HIV treatment, this required study and research and development in chemistry.
The discovery and development of drugs is one of the most complex and costly activities within the pharmaceutical industry.
It covers a wide range of end-to-end activities with a large amount of supply chain and support services. It is estimated that the average cost to research and develop each successful drug is between 800 and 1000 million dollars (Radhakrishnan, 2015).
3- Medicinal Chemistry
While it is true that pharmacology is responsible for the development of drugs, its discovery lies in medical chemistry.
The identification and validation of drug targets, rational (goal-based) drug design, structural biology, computer-based drug design, development of (chemical, biochemical and computational) methods and"H2L" .
The techniques and approaches of chemical biology, synthetic organic chemistry, combinatorial biochemistry, mechanistic enzymology, computational chemistry, chemical genomics and high throughput screening are used by medicinal chemists for drug discovery (The Regents Of the University of Michigan., SF).
Medicinal Chemistry is one of the fastest growing areas within the discipline of Chemistry at a global level. It is the study of design, biochemical effects, regulatory and ethical aspects of drugs for the treatment of disease (The University of Auckland, S.F.).
4- Medical diagnosis
When a bioanalyst does a blood test he is using chemistry. The chemistry departments of the hospital's medical laboratories analyze blood, urine, etc. To analyze proteins, sugars (glucose in the urine is a sign of diabetes) and other metabolic and inorganic substances.
Electrolyte testing is a routine blood test, testing things like potassium and sodium.
Chemists have developed useful diagnostic tools used every day in hospitals, such as magnetic resonance and the Computed tomography .
These techniques allow imaging (using magnetic waves or x-rays) so doctors can see organs, bones and tissues inside a patient (chemistryinmedicine, 2012).
5- Medical materials
Beyond the contributions that chemistry has made in medicine, we can also mention how chemistry is involved in hospitals and clinics daily.
From latex gloves, catheters, urine bags, probes, even syringes are made with chemical materials.
Prosthesis
The chemical industry is responsible for the production of prostheses. Such prostheses are used for the replacement of lost limbs or for cosmetic surgery such as the breast prosthesis.
On the other hand when a bone is replaced in a patient, it should be done with a material that the body does not reject. It is usually titanium but research has been done for replacement with synthetic material similar to coral.
7- Human genetics
Molecular biology is the branch of biochemistry in charge of studying DNA. During the last years, important advances have been made in this area that help us to understand the role of the genetic code in living beings and this has helped to improve the medicine.
An example of this is the concept of interfering RNA (iRNA), where biochemical engineering is used to inhibit the translation of mRNA into a sequence of amino acids by the ribosomes requiring chemistry.
In iRNA, a designed piece of double stranded RNA literally cuts the mRNA to prevent it from being subjected to translation.
Origin of the application of chemistry in medicine
It all started with Paracelsus
Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (1493-1541), who was called Paracelsus, is the man who pioneered the use of minerals and other chemicals in medicine.
Mercury, lead, arsenic and antimony, poisons for specialists, were cures in his opinion.
"In all things there is a poison, and there is nothing without a poison, it depends only on the dose, whether a poison is poison or not..."
Paracelsus
Although most of its recipes have fallen out of favor, arsenic is still used to kill certain parasites. The antimony was used as a purgative and gained much popularity after it was used to cure Louis XIV.
Paracelsus wrote many books on medicine, although most of his work was not published until after his death and his influence increased posthumously.
Paracelsus won a major supporter in Peder Sorensen (also known as Petrus Severinus), whose Idea medicinæ philosophicae Published in 1571 defended Paracelsus on Galen, considered the supreme medical authority.
The first courses of medical chemistry were given in Jena in the early 1600s and the new chemical medicine invented by Paracelsus was published in the Ottoman Empire shortly thereafter.
Although we thought of Paracelsus as the first medical chemist, he considered himself alchemist , And in his writings astrology and mysticism abound, even his preparations of chemicals are like passages of a grimoire.
In any case, he had the soul of a scientist and preferred direct experience over the ancient authorities. Although not fully appreciated until his death, medicine would be a different field without his contributions (Steven A. Edwards, 2012).
References
- (2012, March 8). How is chemistry important in medicine? Retrieved from chemistryinmedicine.wordpress.com.
- Health and Medicine. (2011). Received from kemiaora.hu.
- Marek H Dominiczak. (S.F.). CONTRIBUTION OF BIOCHEMISTRY TO MEDICINE. Retrieved from eolss.net.
- Radhakrishnan, S. (2015, February 2). The role of chemistry in drug discovery and development. Retrieved from adjacentopenaccess.com.
- Steven A. Edwards. (2012, March 1). Paracelsus, the man who brought chemistry to medicine. Retrieved from aaas.org.
- The Regents of the University of Michigan. (S.F.). Medicinal Chemistry. Retrieved from pharmacy.umich.edu.
- The University of Auckland. (S.F.). Medicinal Chemistry. Retrieved from science.auckland.ac.nz.