Emerging Biomimetic Approaches in the Optimization of Drug Therapies

Pharmacology is the study of drug action and applications in living organisms. A significant aspect of pharmacology is the use of natural, semi-synthetic, and synthetic products in the prophylaxis or treatment of disease. Observations from nature are increasingly being adopted and adapted to solve real world challenges. Potential solutions to challenges of restoring biological systems to normal function may lie in normally functioning biological systems. Biomimetics is learning from nature and using nature’s methods in science and engineering. This review is based on a literature search of Medline conducted within the first week of October 2016, limited to articles published between 2005 and 5th October 2016. Search terms were Biomimetics and Pharmacology. The most recent 100 publications were used to determine emerging themes and interphases of Biomimetics and Pharmacology. Using the 100 most recent publications from the search, the emerging themes were biomaterial scaffolds (26%), bio-molecules with enhanced or novel pharmacologic properties (24%), nano-particles (11%), cancer therapeutics (9%), biomimetics method applied to pharmacology (6%), novel and improved antimicrobials (6%), stem cell science (4%), regenerative medicine (3%), siRNA molecules (2%), and molecule biosensors (1%). This review describes these themes using a few examples from literature. Advances in biomimetic research are rapidly expanding the scope of pharmacology and creating new themes and trends. These emerging themes are giving rise to new sub-specialties in pharmacology. However, great science will remain a multidisciplinary collaboration in one big venture—to keep improving the quality of life on earth.