disease and drug development

Stages of drug development

There are 5 stages of drug development: preclinical tests on cells and tissues; preclinical tests on live animals; clinical trials on human volunteers; clinical trials on patients and peer review. Preclinical tests on cells and tissues: Tests for efficiency  To see if it works in the way we want it to Once it works in the way we want it to, we can move onto stage 2 Preclinical tests on live animals: Tests for toxicity - is it harmful and how harmful is it  Gives us an idea of the dosage that tis needed Tests for side affects in other parts of the body Once we find out the correct dosage and no there are no harmful side affects in the animals, we can move onto stage 3

Clinical trials in humans: Tests for side effects in humans The healthy volunteers are often paid If there are no side effects we can move onto stage 4 Clinical trials on patients: Double blind trial 1 group is given the drug and the other a sugar pill. The patients and doctors don't know which is which. Removes bias/placebo effect  The drug now has a licence that can be easily taken away Once the drug has been proven to work, we move onto stage 5 Peer review: Stops fake claims

types of diseases

There are 5 types of diseases. Diseases and their causes: Autoimmune - the immune system attacking and damaging the body's own cells communicable - a pathogen is caught from an infected person Deficiency - a lack of nutrients in the diet (scurvy) Genetic - a fault in DNA that changes how cells work and it is non-communicable Lifestyle - something we choose to do, e.g. smoking Pathogen - microorganisms that gives diseases (bacteria, virus, fungus, protozoa, worms)