Nouvelles cibles et perspectives thérapeutiques. Vers une médecine de précision.

A therapeutic target can be defined as the biochemical
entity by which a drug exerts its beneficial effects.
Historically, most drugs have been used without a precise
knowledge of their mechanism of action. The rational drug
design for a predefined target has been progressively
implemented during the second half of the 20th century.
Recent advances in genomics have accelerated the discovery
of several targets involved in many pathologies. During
the recent period, there has also been a diversification of
the types of targets used in therapy. Generally, the proteins
modulated by drugs belonged mainly to the families of
membrane receptors (receptors coupled to G proteins, ion
channels, etc.), nuclear receptors or enzymes. Technological
advances in the field of therapeutic antibodies and biotechnologies
enabled curative agents to reach previously
undruggable targets. In this article, we review these trends
and illustrate them by various examples, notably in the field
of anticancer drugs, lipid-lowering drugs, gene therapy or
antisense therapy.