{"id":50340,"date":"2021-05-28T16:10:35","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T15:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=50340"},"modified":"2021-06-04T18:14:30","modified_gmt":"2021-06-04T17:14:30","slug":"jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-pharmacological-black-swans-1970-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2021\/05\/28\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-pharmacological-black-swans-1970-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Pharmacological black swans 1970\u20132020"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In his book <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Black Swan<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (Random House, 2007), Nassim Taleb wrote \u201chistory does not crawl, it jumps\u201d. Many important discoveries, he asserted, do not come about by careful planning; they arise suddenly and surprisingly, like the discovery of a black swan when everyone believes that all swans are white. But when a surprising discovery is made it often immediately becomes obvious retrospectively and in time becomes commonplace. \u201cLook into your own personal life,\u201d writes Taleb, \u201cto your choice of profession, say \u2026. How often did [significant events, technological changes, and inventions] occur according to plan?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since last October I have been doing just that, by charting the biomedical words that have entered the English language since I began medical practice in September 1970, just over 50 years ago. My source is the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oxford English Dictionary<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">OED<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">) (Figure 1).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-50344\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2021\/05\/aronson_28_may_2021.jpg\" alt=\"The cumulative numbers of new biomedical words appearing in the Oxford English Dictionary from 1970 to 2020\" width=\"705\" height=\"357\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2021\/05\/aronson_28_may_2021.jpg 705w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2021\/05\/aronson_28_may_2021-300x152.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2021\/05\/aronson_28_may_2021-640x324.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 705px) 100vw, 705px\" \/><br \/>\n<b>Figure 1.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The cumulative numbers of new biomedical words appearing in the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oxford English Dictionary<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from 1970 to 2020, dated by their earliest citations; pharmacology includes toxicology, drug dependence, and recreational drugs; biochemistry includes immunology; microbiology includes micro-organisms and infectious diseases<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here I shall concentrate on words relating to pharmacology, which dominated the lists from the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2020\/10\/09\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-fifty-years\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">start<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The categories into which they can be subclassified are shown in Table 1.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Table 1. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Categories into which the newly recorded pharmacological words can be classified<\/span><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-50345\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2021\/05\/aronson_28_may_2021_2.jpg\" alt=\"Categories into which the newly recorded pharmacological words can be classified\" width=\"355\" height=\"213\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2021\/05\/aronson_28_may_2021_2.jpg 355w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2021\/05\/aronson_28_may_2021_2-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 355px) 100vw, 355px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The accumulated list of words shows that Taleb is wrong when it comes to drug development\u2014there are few pharmacological black swans. Drug development these days is a highly organized and logical affair. Typically, you start with a target, in a cell or an animal say, and look for a compound that affects it. Among the thousands of compounds that a pharmaceutical company will have on its shelves, synthesized for one reason or another over the years, there is an approximate 25% chance that one of them will hit the chosen target. It may not be very potent or effective, but a hit, however slight, will lead to modification of the structure of the compound, yielding more effective and more potent compounds, until candidates suitable for clinical trial emerge. Alternatively, in silico studies of receptor structures may predict the kinds of molecules that are likely to interact with them. Pharmacokinetic studies will predict whether the drug concentrations likely to arrive at the putative site of action will be high enough, and whether, for example, there are active metabolites that may also be effective. Medicinal chemistry will guide the choice of formulation. And early clinical trials will guide go-no-go decision-making.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">During the current pandemic we have seen several unsuccessful attempts to repurpose therapeutic agents to treat covid-19. But the usual drug discovery process has been inverted. Instead of looking for likely targets, investigators have picked drugs and then hypothesized targets through which they might be effective, often encouraged by apparent in vitro efficacy, and lacking the reassurance of appropriate pharmacokinetics. This upside-down approach has resulted in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/publications\/i\/item\/WHO-2019-nCoV-therapeutics-2021.1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">failure<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> when drugs such as hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, ivermectin, and lopinavir\u2013ritonavir were touted as possibly efficacious agents.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Of course, there is no guarantee that drugs that have been through a rigorous process will necessarily be successful either. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cebm.net\/covid-19\/drug-vignettes-remdesivir\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Remdesivir<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, for example, based on a target in SARS-CoV2, its RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, was much less successful than had been hoped, because the virus has an exonuclease that repairs the damage done by inhibition of the polymerase.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pharmacological black swans do, however, appear from time to time. The best known of these is sildenafil, which appeared in the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2021\/05\/07\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-weighty-words\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">1995 list<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and as Viagra <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2021\/05\/14\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-omics\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">a year later<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and which was developed for the treatment of angina pectoris. The discovery that it was beneficial in the treatment of erectile dysfunction was completely unexpected.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Discovery of adverse drug reactions, which are often due to off-target effects, is a more difficult business, and they more often emerge as black swans. Witness cerebral venous sinus and splanchnic vein <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/34029848\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">thromboses<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, rare adverse effects attributed to the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/32702298\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">ChAdOx1<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> vaccine against SARS-CoV2, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchsquare.com\/article\/rs-558954\/v1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">hypothesized<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to be due to variant forms of the viral spike protein whose synthesis is stimulated by the vaccine, a genetically modified chimpanzee adenovirus.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">OED<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is limited<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">as a source of information in this exercise. For example, of nearly 700 monoclonal antibodies, the dictionary includes only trastuzumab (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2021\/05\/14\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-omics\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">1997<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">), presumably because it is better known as Herceptin, which has a separate entry (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2021\/05\/07\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-weighty-words\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">1996<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">). Even if entries in the dictionary were limited, say, to those currently listed in the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">British National Formulary<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (Box 1), and therefore in general therapeutic use, a major exercise would await the lexicographers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Box 1.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> There are upwards of 700 monoclonal antibodies; this selection is based on those listed in the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">British National Formulary<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-50350\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2021\/05\/aronson_28_may-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"746\" height=\"263\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2021\/05\/aronson_28_may-1.jpg 746w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2021\/05\/aronson_28_may-1-300x106.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2021\/05\/aronson_28_may-1-640x226.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 746px) 100vw, 746px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><strong>Jeffrey Aronson<\/strong>\u00a0is a clinical pharmacologist, working in the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine in Oxford&#8217;s Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences. He is also president emeritus of the British Pharmacological Society.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>Competing interests:<\/strong> none declared.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2021\/05\/07\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-weighty-words\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-50352 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2021\/05\/aronson_28_may_2021_integer.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"798\" height=\"2429\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2021\/05\/aronson_28_may_2021_integer.jpg 798w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2021\/05\/aronson_28_may_2021_integer-99x300.jpg 99w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2021\/05\/aronson_28_may_2021_integer-336x1024.jpg 336w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2021\/05\/aronson_28_may_2021_integer-768x2338.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2021\/05\/aronson_28_may_2021_integer-505x1536.jpg 505w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2021\/05\/aronson_28_may_2021_integer-673x2048.jpg 673w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2021\/05\/aronson_28_may_2021_integer-640x1948.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 798px) 100vw, 798px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In his book The Black Swan (Random House, 2007), Nassim Taleb wrote \u201chistory does not crawl, it jumps\u201d. Many important discoveries, he asserted, do not come about by careful planning; [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2021\/05\/28\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-pharmacological-black-swans-1970-2020\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":38359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5762],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jeff-aronsons-words"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . 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