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Alan L. Harvey

Bio: Alan L. Harvey is an academic researcher from Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences. The author has contributed to research in topics: Neuromuscular transmission & Acetylcholine. The author has an hindex of 47, co-authored 245 publications receiving 10249 citations. Previous affiliations of Alan L. Harvey include University of Strathclyde & Panjab University, Chandigarh.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work reviews strategies for natural product screening that harness the recent technical advances that have reduced technical barriers and assess the use of genomic and metabolomic approaches to augment traditional methods of studying natural products.
Abstract: Natural products have been a rich source of compounds for drug discovery. However, their use has diminished in the past two decades, in part because of technical barriers to screening natural products in high-throughput assays against molecular targets. Here, we review strategies for natural product screening that harness the recent technical advances that have reduced these barriers. We also assess the use of genomic and metabolomic approaches to augment traditional methods of studying natural products, and highlight recent examples of natural products in antimicrobial drug discovery and as inhibitors of protein-protein interactions. The growing appreciation of functional assays and phenotypic screens may further contribute to a revival of interest in natural products for drug discovery.

1,822 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Various screening approaches are being developed to improve the ease with which natural products can be used in drug discovery campaigns, and data mining and virtual screening techniques are also being applied to databases of natural products.

1,716 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Natural products continue to provide greater structural diversity than standard combinatorial chemistry and so they offer major opportunities for finding novel low molecular weight lead structures that are active against a wide range of assay targets.

521 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 May 1995-Toxicon
TL;DR: A peptide toxin that blocks voltage-dependent potassium channels was isolated from the whole body extract of the Caribbean sea anemone Stichodactyla helianthus and appears to be in a different structural class from other toxins affecting K+ channels.

257 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jan 2001-Toxicon
TL;DR: The dendrotoxins have little or no anti-protease activity, but they were demonstrated to block particular subtypes of voltage-dependent potassium channels in neurons, and have become widely used as probes for studying the function of K(+) channels in physiology and pathophysiology.

219 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review covers the literature published in 2014 for marine natural products, with 1116 citations referring to compounds isolated from marine microorganisms and phytoplankton, green, brown and red algae, sponges, cnidarians, bryozoans, molluscs, tunicates, echinoderms, mangroves and other intertidal plants and microorganisms.

4,649 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This contribution is a completely updated and expanded version of the four prior analogous reviews that were published in this journal in 1997, 2003, 2007, and 2012, and the time frame has been extended to cover the 34 years from January 1, 1981, to December 31, 2014, for all diseases worldwide, and from 1950 (earliest so far identified) to December 2014 for all approved antitumor drugs worldwide.
Abstract: This contribution is a completely updated and expanded version of the four prior analogous reviews that were published in this journal in 1997, 2003, 2007, and 2012. In the case of all approved therapeutic agents, the time frame has been extended to cover the 34 years from January 1, 1981, to December 31, 2014, for all diseases worldwide, and from 1950 (earliest so far identified) to December 2014 for all approved antitumor drugs worldwide. As mentioned in the 2012 review, we have continued to utilize our secondary subdivision of a “natural product mimic”, or “NM”, to join the original primary divisions and the designation “natural product botanical”, or “NB”, to cover those botanical “defined mixtures” now recognized as drug entities by the U.S. FDA (and similar organizations). From the data presented in this review, the utilization of natural products and/or their novel structures, in order to discover and develop the final drug entity, is still alive and well. For example, in the area of cancer, over t...

4,337 citations

Patent
29 Jun 2001
TL;DR: In this article, a structural signal called for the display of the protein on the outer surface of a chosen bacterial cell, bacterial spore or phage (genetic package) is introduced into a genetic package.
Abstract: In order to obtain a novel binding protein against a chosen target, DNA molecules, each encoding a protein comprising one of a family of similar potential binding domains and a structural signal calling for the display of the protein on the outer surface of a chosen bacterial cell, bacterial spore or phage (genetic package) are introduced into a genetic package. The protein is expressed and the potential binding domain is displayed on the outer surface of the package. The cells or viruses bearing the binding domains which recognize the target molecule are isolated and amplified. The successful binding domains are then characterized. One or more of these successful binding domains is used as a model for the design of a new family of potential binding domains, and the process is repeated until a novel binding domain having a desired affinity for the target molecule is obtained. In one embodiment, the first family of potential binding domains is related to bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor, the genetic package is M13 phage, and the protein includes the outer surface transport signal of the M13 gene III protein.

3,093 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review describes and discusses several approaches to selecting higher plants as candidates for drug development with the greatest possibility of success and identifies and discusses advantages and disadvantages of using plants as starting points for drugDevelopment, specifically those used in traditional medicine.
Abstract: In this review we describe and discuss several approaches to selecting higher plants as candidates for drug development with the greatest possibility of success. We emphasize the role of information derived from various systems of traditional medicine (ethnomedicine) and its utility for drug discovery purposes. We have identified 122 compounds of defined structure, obtained from only 94 species of plants, that are used globally as drugs and demonstrate that 80% of these have had an ethnomedical use identical or related to the current use of the active elements of the plant. We identify and discuss advantages and disadvantages of using plants as starting points for drug development, specifically those used in traditional medicine.

1,992 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work reviews strategies for natural product screening that harness the recent technical advances that have reduced technical barriers and assess the use of genomic and metabolomic approaches to augment traditional methods of studying natural products.
Abstract: Natural products have been a rich source of compounds for drug discovery. However, their use has diminished in the past two decades, in part because of technical barriers to screening natural products in high-throughput assays against molecular targets. Here, we review strategies for natural product screening that harness the recent technical advances that have reduced these barriers. We also assess the use of genomic and metabolomic approaches to augment traditional methods of studying natural products, and highlight recent examples of natural products in antimicrobial drug discovery and as inhibitors of protein-protein interactions. The growing appreciation of functional assays and phenotypic screens may further contribute to a revival of interest in natural products for drug discovery.

1,822 citations