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Small Molecule Drug Metabolism Return to
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I. Why are drugs metabolized? |
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| Small molecule drugs are
xenobiotics, foreign molecules, that the
human body attempts to deal with through a number of responses. Some drugs are excreted from the human body
intact. Most drugs, however, need to be modified structurally to facilitate
excretion. These modification processes are called drug metabolism.
Drug
metabolism is a detoxification function the human body possesses to defend
itself from environment hostility. When a person is sick, however, the body
needs some kind of medication to fight the disease. Ideally, a drug should
reach the site of action intact, cure the disease, and leave the body after it
completes its mission. However, drug developers often face the dilemma that a
potential drug is either metabolized/excreted from the body too fast, that the
drug can not reach its therapeutic effect, or too slow, that it stays in the
body for a long time, causing side effects. (Remember the drug is a xenobiotic
that the normal human body doesn't need.) The study of drug metabolism,
therefore, serves primarily two purposes: to elucidate the function and fate
of the drug, and to manipulate the metabolic process of a potential drug.
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