As more drugs are discovered, it is often assumed that we understand the logical mechanisms of how drug acts on specific physiology and in terms of bacteria and virus, how that drug inhibits the growth or survival of the microbe. However, in many cases the mechanism of action is understood much later.
In the early days of drug discovery, most of the compounds that were discovered were known to have some activity. Drug discovery in those days consisted mostly of finding the key active component, purifying it and then using it for making the pure compound. However, in modern science we try to find the target and then develop a compound. This obviously comes with the complication that we do not always understand how that specific target acts in the biological system.
Sharklet: Sharklet, based on the scales of the shark is one such interesting technology. The technology is essentially a micro-patterned surface that prevents the growth of bacteria on the surface. The company has developed several products that inhibit the growth of bacteria on specific surfaces. For example, imagine the coating of sharklet on an hospital door knob that would prevent the spread of nosocomial infections. The company has had resistance marketing this widely to all the institutions but it has proved the technology at various levels. However, it is not quite understood how the micro-patterned surface works to reduce the growth of bacteria in the absence of any bacteriostatic or bactericidal chemicals? Is that bacteria require some kind of adherence to other bacteria to make it grow? Would a similar effect be effective in Cancer therapy with microbeads? Unknown. However, for sharklet to continue marketing their technology, maybe they need to work through the mechanism of action clearly and develop a marketing strategy that makes this a common accessory in common use rather than try to target cash starved hospitals.
