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Magic bullet

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Magic bullet may refer to:

  • An enchanted bullet of German folklore and a feature of Carl Maria von Weber's ghostly opera Der Freischütz
  • "Magic bullet", a concept of selectively targeting a bacterium without affecting other organisms, most associated with Dr. Paul Ehrlich and syphilis research.[1]
  • The term, although derived from Dr Ehrlich, has other uses in medicinal chemistry. For example, it is written:

Most common CNS disorders are highly polygenic in nature, i.e., they are controlled by complex interactions between numerous gene products. As such, these conditions do not exhibit the single gene defect basis that is so attractive for the development of highly-specific drugs largely free of major undesirable side effects ("the magic bullet"). Secondly, the exact nature of the interactions that occur between the numerous gene products typically involved in CNS disorders remain elusive, and the biological mechanisms underlying mental illnesses are poorly understood.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 21140107, please use {{cite journal}} with |pmid=21140107 instead.
  2. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 20704963, please use {{cite journal}} with |pmid=20704963 instead.