A New Brand of Nutritional Science
Structurally Active Orthomolecular (SAO) TechnologyTM
Structurally Active Orthomolecular (SAO) Technology refers to the treatment and prevention of disease by the expert adjustment of the natural chemical constituents of our bodies. It places its reliance on these agents in preference to chemicals and drugs which are foreign to healthy metabolism.
SAO TechnologyTM emerges from an analysis of how a small molecule binds and interacts with a target exploiting chemical interactions (i.e. hydrogen bonds, covalent bonds, ionic attractions, charge transfer complexes, van der Waals and hydrophobic interactions). The combined effect of these interactions governs specificity, binding affinity, and the level and mode of action.
The obtained chemical structure of the complex is the most direct way to gain a comprehensive understanding of how a ligand binds a target. Medicinal chemistry and high-throughput screening informs on structure-activity relationship and provides a prototype for screening and modeling to improve affinity.
SAO TechnologyTM optimizes the chemical interactions though refinement of lead structure functional group and improves the lead function through adjustment in activity, toxicity, bioavailability and metabolism. Hence, SAO TechnologyTM offers the potential to reduce the number of compounds being synthesized and tested by revealing prematurely and valuable insight into the interactions that influence selectivity and binding affinity.
Outline of a SAO TechnologyTM approach to the design and discovery of nutritional supplements
1 - Target Selection and validation
Protein (or nucleic acid) identified
2 - Target characterization
3D structure determined, druggability assessed
3 - Ligand/inhibitor studies
Binding and inhibition data
4 - Target-ligand structure determination
Elucidate features that determine affinity and selectivity
5 - Design chemical modification to ligands
Improve target affinity and develop compound series
6 - Lead series developed, cell-based assay and studies
Investigate biological/pharmacological activity to select pre-clinical candidates
7 - Clinical Trials
Informed by medicinal chemistry experience, genome data, and comparative bioinformatics, chemical validation
Obtain recombinant source of target, purify and develop appropriate assays for biochemical and kinetic analysis
Exploit the structure, identify ligands or focused screens
Derive accurate structures of target-ligand complexes
Molecular modeling of scaffold modifications seeking to enhance affinity for the target
Testing against whole cells and elucidation of efficacy in a disease model