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Nucleic acid targeted drug design
33
Rational drug design? Nucleic Acid Targeted Drug Design
edited by C. L. Propst and T.J. Perun, Marcel Dekker, 1992. US$165.00 (xiii + 619pages) [SBN 0 8247 8662 9 The notion o f a rational approach to chemotherapy has been a prospect for many years, but few o f the drugs used to treat infectious and malignant disease today could be claimed to have resulted from the application o f rational scientific principles. Why? Different writers will give you different answers, but probably all would agree that, hitherto, it has just been too difficult. However, the situation is set to change. O u r understanding o f cell biochemistry in health and disease is growing apace. The ability o f computers to analyse, interpret and simulate molecular interactions becomes steadily more reliable. There is still a long way to go, but these achievements form the principal 'stock-in-trade' o f the would-be drug designer. It will not be long before truly useful medicines emerge from their efforts. This book, a sequel to an earlier volume from the same editors and publisher, will go a long way to draw attention to the nucleic acids as valid objects for consideration. The exquisite specificity resident in the genome as
a target for drug design is not a new concept, but the editors are right in their belief that the time is right to discuss serious approaches to the goal o f targeting nucleic acids. Anticancer and antiviral chemotherapy are the areas most likely to profit first, and humankind is hungry for results. Propst and Perun have assembled a wide-ranging and balanced text, which describes the background, methods and applications o f nucleic acid targeting. Their b o o k contains plenty o f valuable information, and even an old hand like this reviewer can learn a lot from the more than 600 pages of text. There are chapters by established experts as well as newcomers to the field, and a sense o f real enthusiasm, bolstered by confidence o f imminent success, shines out from several o f the contributions. I was particularly pleased to find treatment o f p r o t e i n - D N A interactions, catalytic R.NAs, and oligonucleotide-based therapeutics included, together with some fine chapters on existing categories o f D N A - b i n d i n g drugs. O f course, the b o o k is not
A ferment of ideas The Uses of Life: A History o f Biotechnology
by Robert Bud, Cambridge University Press, 1993. UK£30.O0 (xvii + 299pages) ISBN 0 521 38240 8 In the forward to this book, Mark Cantley implies that it is increasingly difficult to justify additions to the existing plethora o f books on biotechnology. He does so, however, by pointing to the flesh perspective o f this work, which demonstrates 'the historical depth, the cultural, linguistic and multidisciplinary breadth; the diversity and perplexity, but yet the
cladistic continuity, of biotechnology's long history o f punctuated equilibria, from zymotechnology to the human genome'. Does it? W i t h the possible exception o f the cladistic continuity, the answer is a resounding yes. The w o r k is painstakingly researched, measured in argument, attractively written and a thoroughly interesting and
without its defects: what book ever is? One or two contributions had few or no references post-1990. I imagine that the editors had the usual difficulty in extracting contributions from tardy authors, and (who knows) may even have had to abandon hope of receiving a promised chapter or two. There comes a point where it is unfair to compromise the efforts o f those authors who did deliver on time, though I am reminded o f the joke that the deadline means the time at which the editor drops dead if he has received any manuscripts at all. I have a personal grouse about the use o f management-speak and its intrusion into scientific endeavour, fuelled here by the associated addiction to jargon and abbreviations, which goes so far as to abbreviate the title o f the book to N A T D in the preface and to define 'new chemical entities' as N e E on page 3 and then never use the abbreviation again. However, in the main, the b o o k is well produced and interesting. If it succeeds in its avowed purpose of bringing the possibilities o f nucleicacid-targeted drug design to a wider audience, it will fill a timely niche and render a real service to the scientific c o m m u n i t y .
Mi&ael J. Waring Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge, UK CB2 IQJ.
informative read. It has clearly been a labour o f love for the author, rather than a half-hearted attempt to satisfy the whim o f the publishing industry's everincreasing appetite for competitive new titles. The b o o k comprises nine chapters and exhaustive notes and sources. The text is a consistently captivating mix o f incisive commentary and analysis o f the historical roots o f underpinning disciplines, and o f h o w they became intertwined as biotechnology. It draws heavily on w h o m the author perceives as the main individual and institutional practitioners and policy makers in the international arena, as well as the science and technology for which they have been responsible. TIBTECHJANUARY1994(VOL12)
Rational drug design? Nucleic Acid Targeted Drug Design
edited by C. L. Propst and T.J. Perun, Marcel Dekker, 1992. US$165.00 (xiii + 619pages) [SBN 0 8247 8662 9 The notion o f a rational approach to chemotherapy has been a prospect for many years, but few o f the drugs used to treat infectious and malignant disease today could be claimed to have resulted from the application o f rational scientific principles. Why? Different writers will give you different answers, but probably all would agree that, hitherto, it has just been too difficult. However, the situation is set to change. O u r understanding o f cell biochemistry in health and disease is growing apace. The ability o f computers to analyse, interpret and simulate molecular interactions becomes steadily more reliable. There is still a long way to go, but these achievements form the principal 'stock-in-trade' o f the would-be drug designer. It will not be long before truly useful medicines emerge from their efforts. This book, a sequel to an earlier volume from the same editors and publisher, will go a long way to draw attention to the nucleic acids as valid objects for consideration. The exquisite specificity resident in the genome as
a target for drug design is not a new concept, but the editors are right in their belief that the time is right to discuss serious approaches to the goal o f targeting nucleic acids. Anticancer and antiviral chemotherapy are the areas most likely to profit first, and humankind is hungry for results. Propst and Perun have assembled a wide-ranging and balanced text, which describes the background, methods and applications o f nucleic acid targeting. Their b o o k contains plenty o f valuable information, and even an old hand like this reviewer can learn a lot from the more than 600 pages of text. There are chapters by established experts as well as newcomers to the field, and a sense o f real enthusiasm, bolstered by confidence o f imminent success, shines out from several o f the contributions. I was particularly pleased to find treatment o f p r o t e i n - D N A interactions, catalytic R.NAs, and oligonucleotide-based therapeutics included, together with some fine chapters on existing categories o f D N A - b i n d i n g drugs. O f course, the b o o k is not
A ferment of ideas The Uses of Life: A History o f Biotechnology
by Robert Bud, Cambridge University Press, 1993. UK£30.O0 (xvii + 299pages) ISBN 0 521 38240 8 In the forward to this book, Mark Cantley implies that it is increasingly difficult to justify additions to the existing plethora o f books on biotechnology. He does so, however, by pointing to the flesh perspective o f this work, which demonstrates 'the historical depth, the cultural, linguistic and multidisciplinary breadth; the diversity and perplexity, but yet the
cladistic continuity, of biotechnology's long history o f punctuated equilibria, from zymotechnology to the human genome'. Does it? W i t h the possible exception o f the cladistic continuity, the answer is a resounding yes. The w o r k is painstakingly researched, measured in argument, attractively written and a thoroughly interesting and
without its defects: what book ever is? One or two contributions had few or no references post-1990. I imagine that the editors had the usual difficulty in extracting contributions from tardy authors, and (who knows) may even have had to abandon hope of receiving a promised chapter or two. There comes a point where it is unfair to compromise the efforts o f those authors who did deliver on time, though I am reminded o f the joke that the deadline means the time at which the editor drops dead if he has received any manuscripts at all. I have a personal grouse about the use o f management-speak and its intrusion into scientific endeavour, fuelled here by the associated addiction to jargon and abbreviations, which goes so far as to abbreviate the title o f the book to N A T D in the preface and to define 'new chemical entities' as N e E on page 3 and then never use the abbreviation again. However, in the main, the b o o k is well produced and interesting. If it succeeds in its avowed purpose of bringing the possibilities o f nucleicacid-targeted drug design to a wider audience, it will fill a timely niche and render a real service to the scientific c o m m u n i t y .
Mi&ael J. Waring Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge, UK CB2 IQJ.
informative read. It has clearly been a labour o f love for the author, rather than a half-hearted attempt to satisfy the whim o f the publishing industry's everincreasing appetite for competitive new titles. The b o o k comprises nine chapters and exhaustive notes and sources. The text is a consistently captivating mix o f incisive commentary and analysis o f the historical roots o f underpinning disciplines, and o f h o w they became intertwined as biotechnology. It draws heavily on w h o m the author perceives as the main individual and institutional practitioners and policy makers in the international arena, as well as the science and technology for which they have been responsible. TIBTECHJANUARY1994(VOL12)