Sistema de Avaliação do Potencial para Inovação de Biomoléculas - SInBIOMOL: da biodiversidade amazônica a fármacos

Abstract

The Amazonian biodiversity is used by the indigenous population for medicinal purposes since the news of the contact of the Europeans, being seen as promising since then, for its potential as a source of cure for several diseases and especially as a possible source of wealth. There are several cases of usage of the Amazonian resources, being the scientific community committed to identify and prove therapeutic activities of Amazonian organisms. However, the biodiversity is so great and the chemical and pharmacological studies so dispersed that rare are the real cases of the development of medicines from the Amazonian biodiversity. Therefore, this work aims to map isolated substances that have proven biological activity and to develop and apply a methodology to classify these substances according to their potential to generate a pharmaceutical product (drug). The sources from these substances are the theses of the Federal University of Amazonas and the classification will be made from, among other factors, existing scientific and technological data (mapping of science and patent analysis). The methodology called Biomolecular Potential Innovation Evaluation (System SInBIOMOL) consists of an essessment of created indicators associated with the drug development process. From the indicators there were elaborated the indices from which it was measured the maturity of the technical-scientific knowledge associated with such a substance. Altogether, about 70% were located in the early stages of drug development. The most frequency trials were antimalarial, followed by anticancer and antiinflammatory activity with 5, 6 and 4 substances that stand out, respectively. These featured substances can be divided into two main groups. The first are substances with great quantities of patents and articles, even some of them are comercial drugs in some countries. And the second group consists of substances with high activity but little known (low quantity of articles and patents). According to the results of the a SInBIOMOL assesssment system that can contribute to: 1) cataloge and classify the knowledge associated with the Amazonian molecular biodiversity; 2) direct investments to research with greater potential to generate pharmaceuticals products; and, 3) elaborate public and institutional policies that can contribute to the innovative environment associated with this theme.