Indirect monitoring of lung inflammation.pdfVIP

? 2002 Nature Publishing Group 238 | MARCH 2002 | VOLUME 1 /reviews/drugdisc P E R S P E C T I V E S 1. IUPHAR. What is pharmacology? Pharmacol. Int. 53, 2–5 (1999). Online links FURTHER INFORMATION American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics: / British Pharmacological Society: http://www.bps.ac.uk/ IUPHAR: / Links to Pharmacology Societies: http://www.kfunigraz.ac.at/ekpwww/linksoc1.html Society of Toxicology: / Access to this interactive links box is free online. William W. Fleming is at West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506, USA. Paul M. Vanhoutte is at Servier, 22 rue Garnier, 92201 Neuilly sur Seine Cedex, France. Théophile Godfraind is at the Catholic University of Louvain, Place de l’Université, 1348 Louvain-la- Neuve, Belgium. Correspondence to B.B.F. e-mail: bertil.fredholm@fyfa.ki.se DOI: 10.1038/nrd749 side effects, at the therapeutic dose. Demon- strating this is often confounded by the fact that many studies cannot be performed directly on humans, and models in animals must be validated. Not only do drugs act on organisms, but organisms can also strongly affect drugs. All organisms have developed highly efficient multi-purpose systems to eliminate and/or metabolize exogenous chemicals, and an important branch of pharmacology deals with the fate of drugs. Understanding meta- bolic pathways helps us to design drugs that are taken up, distributed to the relevant organ or cell, and remain as active molecules for a sufficiently long time. Achieving longevity of action does not necessarily mean that they should not be metabolized, as many drugs in fact require metabolism by the organism to be converted into a biolog- ically active species. Eventually, any potential drug must be brought to the affected human or animal. Clinical pharmacologists have an important role in overseeing clinical trials, taking into consideration the relevant ethical issues. Finding out what clinically effective drugs really do, as opposed to