por The contributions of chemistry to medicine have contributed to many medical advances that are constantly saving lives, enabling us to live longer, happier, and healthier lives.
Throughout much of human history, medicine and health care was primitive. If people got sick or injured, the doctors couldn’t do more than comfort them 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, through their hard work, have helped the evolution of modern medicine by developing novel pharmaceuticals, creating new medical equipment, and refining diagnostic processes.
Main contributions of chemistry in medicine
1. Understanding the human body
Biochemistry is the study of the 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 by biochemical signaling and the flow of chemical energy through metabolism.
To understand how a disease affects the organism, it is necessary to understand the human body in its entirety.
For years, doctors only studied human anatomy without understanding its physiological and biochemical functioning. The development of chemistry changed the way medicine was practiced.
2. Manufacture of medicines
Most drugs are involved with inhibiting a specific enzyme or gene expression.
Blocking the active site of an enzyme requires a «blocker or inhibitor» specifically designed to turn off the function of the enzyme.
Since enzymes are proteins, their functions differ depending on their shape, and inhibitor drugs must be customized for each target enzyme.
From an aspirin to antiretrovirals for the treatment of HIV, this required study and research and development in chemistry.
Drug discovery and development is one of the most complex and costly activities within the framework of the pharmaceutical industry.
It encompasses a wide range of end-to-end supply chain activities and support services. The average cost to research and develop each successful drug is estimated to be between $800 million and $1 billion.
3. Medicinal chemistry
While it is true that pharmacology is responsible for drug development, its discovery falls to medicinal chemistry.
The identification and validation of drug targets, the design rational (target-based), structural biology, computational-based drug design, method development (chemical, biochemical, and computational), and H2L development.
Techniques and approaches from 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.
Medicinal chemistry is one of the fastest developing areas of chemistry globally. It is the study of the design, biochemical effects, regulatory and ethical aspects of drugs for the treatment of disease.
4. Medical diagnosis
When a bioanalyst does a blood test, they are using chemistry. Chemistry departments in hospital medical laboratories analyze blood, urine, etc., to study proteins, sugars (glucose in the urine is a sign of diabetes), and other metabolic and inorganic substances.
Electrolyte tests are a routine blood test, testing for things like potassium and sodium.
Chemists have developed useful diagnostic tools used every day in hospitals, such as MRI and CT scan.
These techniques allow imaging (using magnetic waves or X-rays) so doctors can see the organs, bones, and tissues inside a patient.
5. Medical materials
Beyond the contributions that chemistry has made to medicine, we can also mention how chemistry has been involved in hospitals and clinics on a daily basis.
From latex gloves, catheters, urine bags, probes, to syringes are made with chemical materials.
6. Prosthetics
The chemical industry is in charge of the production of prostheses. Said prostheses are used to replace missing limbs or for cosmetic surgery, such as breast prostheses.
On the other hand, when a bone is replaced in a patient, it must be done with a material that the body does not reject. It is usually titanium, but research has been done for replacement with synthetic coral-like material.
7. Human genetics
Molecular biology is the branch of biochemistry responsible for the study of DNA. During the last few years, important advances have been made in this area that help us understand the role of the genetic code in living beings, and this has helped to improve medicine.
An example of this is the concept of RNA interference (iRNA), where biochemical engineering is used to inhibit the translation of mRNA into an amino acid sequence by ribosomes that requires chemistry.
In iRNA, an engineered piece of double-stranded RNA literally cuts the mRNA to prevent it from undergoing translation.
8. Stem cells
Related to genetics, the discovery of the potential of stem cells has contributed to a better adaptation of organ transplants, since the body does not reject them, since they are part of it.
9. Anesthesia
The development of the different anesthesias used for surgical interventions has meant a better quality of life for patients. Of course, chemistry played a fundamental role.
Origin of the application of chemistry in medicine
It all started with Paracelsus
Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (1493-1541), known as Paracelsus, pioneered the use of minerals and other chemicals in medicine.
Mercury, lead, arsenic and antimony, poisons for specialists, in your opinion, they were priests.
“In all things there is a poison, and there is nothing without a poison, it depends only on the dose, whether a poison is a poison or not…”.
Although most of its recipes have fallen out of favor, arsenic is still used to kill certain parasites. 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 gained an important supporter in Peder Sorensen (also known as Petrus Severinus), whose Idea medicine philosophicae published in 1571, it defended Paracelsus over Galen, considered the supreme medical authority.
The first courses in medicinal chemistry were held in Jena in the early 1600s, and the new chemical medicine invented by Paracelsus was published in the Ottoman Empire soon after.
Although we think of Paracelsus as the first medical chemist, he considered himself an alchemist, and astrology and mysticism abound in his writings, even his chemical preparations are like passages from a grimoire.
In any case, he had the soul of a scientist and preferred direct experience over ancient authorities. Although he was not fully appreciated until his death, medicine changed with his contributions.
References
The role of chemistry in drug discovery and development. Retrieved from adjacentopenaccess.com.
Paracelsus, the man who brought chemistry to medicine. Retrieved from aaas.org.
Medicinal Chemistry. Retrieved from pharmacy.umich.edu.