DATA ANALYSIS IN PHARMACOLOGY
Perfecting pills and potions
Felix Grant examines the role data analytic software plays within pharmacology
‘Y
ou are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making... the delicate power of liquids that
creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death.’[1] J K Rowling’s potions master, Professor
Severus Snape, is talking of magic but his approach is in many ways more scientific (‘there is little foolish wand waving here,’ he warns) than muggle explanations for drug effects which were accepted professional consensus until quite recently in the scheme of things. In anything like the present day usage of the term, pharmacology is (give or take an argument or two over detail) one hundred and sixty five years old. For much of that short history, pharmacological data analysis was externally observational: the body was a black box, with the drug as input and detected effects as outputs. Te current
18 BEYOND THE NUMBERS A STATISTICS SPECIAL
receptor-based molecular approach, though it has its theoretical roots in the early 20th century, only really dates from aſter the Second World War. Tough now an extensively differentiated
field with numerous sub-specialisms, broadly speaking it splits down into how drugs enter and leave the body and exactly what they do while they are in there. Te first is the concern of pharmacokinetics, while the second is covered by pharmacodynamics. Drug discovery is not the only focus.
Existing agents are examined for previously unknown effects, desirable or otherwise, whose identification may offer new benefits. New foodstuffs, or modifications of old ones, need to be investigated too – especially at a time when science is providing us with new means of creating them. New discoveries reveal the role of previously unsuspected agents in apparently unrelated problems. Cosmetics (and even fragrances which are
never applied directly to the body) interact with human systems in ways which must be investigated for toxic and allergenic reactions. Even changes in the balance of well-known nutrients, from fats to vitamins, can throw up effects for which medicine, industry and society need to be prepared. Every substance introduced into a living
organism has a range of effects of which some are beneficial, some are welfare neutral and some are toxic. Tough we most commonly think in terms of elective imports to human or other animal metabolisms, this applies even to fundamental essentials such as oxygen (see box: Oxygene) and to any organism. Substances are classified,
pharmacologically, by the ratio of therapeutic effects to toxic. Te larger that ratio is, the better: a ratio of one indicating toxicity equal to benefit, a ratio of five being seen as a useful. Te lower the ratio, the more important it is to ensure localised
SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING WORLD
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