ABSTRACT
Revolving biomotors offer alternative approaches for therapeutic applications in many conditions where traditional forms of treatment have been proven inadequate. An area where they have a great impact is in the development of potent drugs that bypass drug resistance, which has been a factor in the failure of chemotherapy, the emergence of highly resistant pathogens, and mutations in drug targets that challenge traditional single-target drugs. Biomotors, with their intricate and efficient multiple interacting components, can serve as drug targets. Recent studies have shown that the stoichiometry and sequential mechanism activity of the target are important considerations in drug efficacy. Inhibitors targeting the genome packaging components of nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDVs) might act as especially potent drug targets.
The discovery of the revolving motor mechanism has had a number of significant repercussions within the field of nanomedicine, particularly with regards to human therapeutic applications. By studying the process of DNA packaging, it has become possible to create synthetic biomotors modeled on viral DNA packaging motors that are able to pump medicine directly into diseased cells, as previous misunderstandings about the DNA packaging motor's mechanism had stood as a barrier. This form of drug delivery has great potential for treating cancer patients, avoiding the side effects of traditional chemotherapy. Many other innovations have emerged in recent years as a result of research on biomotors. Single-molecule sensing, which refers to the detection and identification of individual molecules, has the potential to revolutionize the healthcare industry by enabling scientists to analyze small quantities of molecules that could not be analyzed by existing technologies, thus making it possible to diagnose diseases earlier than ever imagined. Another technique is DNA sequencing, which refers to methods to determine the order of precise nucleotides within large genomes. It can be used for early disease diagnosis, determining risk for genetic diseases, detecting mutations, tracking disease outbreaks, and identifying drug targets, among other purposes.
Acquired drug resistance has become a major reason for failure in chemotherapy to treat cancer and bacterial and viral infections. Many common pathogens now have also become resistant to multidrugs, and new infectious diseases are on the rise. The use of multidrug-resistant agents in biological weapons has created a previously unrealized challenge. Thus, there is a need to develop new treatment modalities to combat drug resistance. Most traditional drugs specifically bind to a single target. A mutation in the target often confers resistance to the drug. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to design drugs that can target multicomponent machines so that mutation in one component of the complex will only have very little impact on the efficacy of the drug. The understanding of the functioning of biomotors, where multiple interacting components coevolved to ensure an efficient and well-orchestrated mechanism, will contribute to the development of potent drugs to combat drug resistance. In this chapter, we will discuss the novel approach to develop potent drugs with the power function of stoichiometry using biomotors and other multisubunit biocomplexes as targets.
