Unit 6 Text A 注释及译文.docVIP

Drug Discovery and Natural Products It may be argued that drug discovery is a recent concept that evolved from modern science during the 20th century, but this concept in reality dates back many centuries, and has its origins in nature. On many occasions, humans have turned to Mother Nature for cures, and discovered unique drug molecules. Thus, the term natural product has become almost synonymous with the concept of drug discovery. In modem drug discovery and development processes, natural products play an important role at the early stage of lead discovery, i.e. discovery of the active (determined by various bioassays) natural molecule, which itself or its structural analogues could be an ideal drug candidate. origin [?rid?in] n.起点，端点; 来源；出身, 血统. Synonymous [s?n?n?m?s] adj.同义的，类义的. i.e. [,a?i:] 拉 abbr. (=id est) 即，换言之. candidate [k?ndidit] n.申请求职者, 候选人；报考者；候选物. 有人可能认为药物发现是一个20世纪才出现的、来源于现代科学的新概念，但是事实上这个概念是源于自然界的，可以追溯到许多个世纪以前。过去，人们常常向自然母亲寻求帮助，并且找到了分子结构独特的药物。在那时，天然产物几乎是药物发现的同义词。天然产物在现代药物发现和开发过程中也发挥着重要的作用，即作为天然活性化合物（通过各种生物检定方法）的来源，而天然活性化合物或者其结构类似物可能是很好的候选药物。 Natural products have been enormous source of drugs and drug leads. It is estimated that 61 percent of the 877 small-molecular new chemical entities introduced as drugs worldwide during 1981-2002 can be traced back to or were developed from natural products. These include natural products (6 percent), natural product derivatives (27 percent), and synthetic compounds with natural-product-derived pharmacophores (5 percent) and synthetic compounds designed on the basis of knowledge gained from a natural product, i.e. a natural product mimic (23 percent). In some therapeutic areas, the contribution of natural products is even greater, e.g. about 78 percent of antibacterials and 74 percent of anticancer drug candidates are natural products or structural analogues of natural products. In 2000, approximately 60 percent of all drugs in clinical trials for the multiplicity of cancers were of natural origins. In 2001, eig