Pharmacological Reviews, Vol 8, 89-135, Copyright © 1956 by the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

THE EFFECTS OF DRUGS ON ENZYME SYSTEMS

¹ Department of Pharmacology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo.

It is hoped the foregoing may illustrate not only the complexities of drug-enzyme interactions but also the richness of the possibilities for selective interference with enzyme systems by foreign agents. At the present time, most of the successful drugs are developed empirically or through synthesis of congeners of pre-existing successful types. One wishes for a rational approach which would permit the deliberate development of new drugs specifically to affect particular enzymes. There have been many attempts to develop drugs on a rational basis. Perhaps these attempts will be more successful in the near future. But it must be admitted that the total enzyme matrix of the living organism is more complex and subtle than formerly visualized. Although new information concerning enzymes and their sensitivity to inhibition is being obtained at a constantly accelerated rate, each increment of knowledge also shows the goal to be a little further away than it had appeared to be.

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