Innovations in Combating Infectious Diseases: Opportunities in therapeutics and diagnostics through application of proteomics, genomics, nanotechnology, and novel sources of lead generation

Infectious disease is not merely a problem of the past; despite significant breakthroughs achieved during the last century in the development of antibiotic, antiviral, and antiparasitic drugs and vaccines, the eradication or even control of many infectious diseases has not been accomplished. Of particular current concern are the problems of rapidly developing drug resistance, emerging disease, re-emerging disease, the threat of bioterrorism, and the speed of reaction to the appearance of virulent strains posing pandemic threats. Furthermore, the effective treatment of infectious diseases is dependent on accurate and rapid diagnosis, and this in itself can present significant challenges, especially in cases where the disease progression is poorly understood or has long asymptomatic latency (such as prion diseases).

Successful drugs and vaccines against infectious agents that put millions of people at risk have potentially lucrative markets. The key to developing those drugs is to understand the pathogenic process and gain insight into where and how it can best be interrupted. This report makes a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the cutting edge of research aiming to reveal how bacteria, viruses, fungi, and prions infect and affect their hosts. It also assesses the new technologies and techniques that are being used to design and develop the anti-infective drugs and diagnostic methods of the 21st century.

Key features of this report

This report presents a snapshot of how new technologies and approaches are being applied to the discovery of new drug targets, vaccine candidates, lead compounds, and novel delivery systems that will enhance diagnostics and therapeutics across the whole range of infectious diseases:

• How proteomics is being used to identify biomarkers for new diagnostics in infectious diseases
• How proteomics is being used to identify novel targets for drug discovery and vaccine development in infectious diseases
• The impact of genomics on the search for novel targets for infectious disease drug discovery
• Novel natural sources for lead generation in infectious diseases
• Lead optimization techniques relevant to infectious diseases
• How the application of nanobiotechnology is impacting on drug discovery and drug delivery in infectious diseases

Scope of this report

• Gain awareness of the most significant areas of unmet need for anti-infective drug development.
• Build knowledge of the most promising diagnostics research - ripe for commercialization - for MRSA and community-acquired infections, bacterial meningitis, periodontal disease, and innovative ways for predicting outcome in hepatitis infections.
• Discover how proteomics and genomics are making an increasing impact on drug development programs, and how important infectious agents can be tackled by drug and vaccine approaches.
• Identify the new opportunities for small and large biotechnology based companies to undertake vaccine development based on proteomic and genomic studies

Key Market Issues

• More accurate and rapid diagnostics will remain a pressing need combating prion diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV, hospital-acquired infections and bioterrorism threats.
• Diagnostics is a big area that is ripe for more commercial development, particularly for diagnostic kits that are fast and simple to operates by unskilled personnel, making them amenable to the point-of-care use.
• Personalized medicine will remain a priority; drug treatments need to be more tailored and efficient with fewer side effects, less frequent dosing, and faster action..
• Using genomics to monitor and carry out surveillance of infectious disease will become more important and more necessary, so that new outbreaks, spread of disease, and danger of pandemics can be better monitored and predicted by global warning systems.
• The need to identify, monitor, and respond to bioterrorism will continue to drive research into lethal viral infections such as small pox and ebola, and bacterial diseases such as anthrax and plague.

Key findings from this report

• Drug development, vaccine development, and novel approaches to therapeutics are needed urgently for bacterial, viral, fungal, and prion diseases, which cause high morbidity and mortality in both the developing and the developed world.
• To date, there has been an intensive research effort to use proteomics to detect, identify, characterize, and validate biomarkers and protein signatures in diagnostics for many different infectious diseases but validation and commercialization has so far proved relatively elusive.
• Drug resistance, emerging infections and the threat of bioterrorism make the understanding of virulence factors and disease pathogenesis essential to form a springboard from which to launch drug discovery programs.
• Genomics is being applied to drug discovery across the spectrum of infectious diseases, whether they are caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, or prions. Genomic data can be used in public health surveillance and monitoring of infectious diseases, particularly when there is a threat of a pandemic or bioterrorist attack.
• Novel sources of lead compounds to screen against newly discovered targets are much needed; natural sources have already provided the starting point for several successful anti-infectives, and many sources remain to be explored.

Key questions answered

• Which areas of drug development in infectious disease could have the greatest impact?
• How can the relatively new technology of proteomics be used to develop leads for drug development?
• How are proteomic techniques being used in the design and production of modern diagnostic tools for infectious diseases?
• How are genomic technologies changing the way lead compounds are generated and providing ideas for innovative targeted drugs?
• In which bacteria, viral, fungal and prion diseases are fundamental research efforts showing the most potential for identifying compounds suitable for drug development?