Most drugs we use come from nature—plants, animals, or microbes. The active ingredients in these natural-product drugs are relatively small molecules: aspirin, from willow tree bark, has just 21 atoms; morphine, from the opium poppy, has 40; Akira Endo’s statin, from a mold, has 62. They fight disease by acting on proteins, the much larger molecules that do much of the work in a cell. When proteins malfunction, cells can spin out of control, causing disease. Natural-product drugs work by jamming into tiny crevices in overactive proteins, stopping them like a small wrench inserted into the guts
...more
