Goals and format

Because of the progressively larger emergence of resistance to existing antimicrobials, new chemical entities will be needed in the very near future.  In order for those to become useful drugs, toxicological issues must be met preferably from an early stage of discovery and development.  The symposium reviewed some of the most recent approaches in toxicodynamics and toxicokinetics which may allow for a safer and faster development of new antibiotics.  The symposium examined how these concepts can be applied to existing drugs in order to provide patients with safer treatments.
 

Computer Modeling as a Tool for the Design of Less Toxic Agents R. Brasseur (Gembloux Agricultural University, Department of Numeric Molecular Biophysics, Gembloux, Belgium)   Cellular and Tissular Accumulation of Drugs:  When is it Good and When is it Bad ? P.M. Tulkens (Catholic University of Louvain, Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, Brussels, Belgium)   Do Toxicokinetics and Toxicodynamics Help to Avoid Clinical  Undesired Effects ? D. Nicolau (Hartford Hospital, Department of Pharmacy Research, Hartford, CT)

The symposium was eligible for Continuing education / Accreditation physicians and pharmacists).

• ISAP Web site and ISAP diffusion list are kindly and generously housed on the INTERNET Server of the Faculty of Medicine of the 'Université Catholique de Louvain' in Brussels, Belgium, with the expert help of Benoît Debande, MD.  All comments and queries should however be sent exclusively to the ISAP Webmaster.
• Datura stramonium:  This 1-2 meter plant, known in English as 'Thor Apple' is common in Eastern Canada.  It contains a large quantity of anticholinergic compounds scopolamine, hyoscyamine and atropine) and may affect gardeners or farmers getting into contact with it.   It is responsible for severe intoxications, particularly in September, when people voluntarily or not ea t its seeds giving rise to a typical atropinic syndrome  (" mad as a hatter - red as a beet - dry as a bone -  hot as a hare - blind as a bat ").  This description is from the Web site of Pierre Étienne Senécal, M.D., F.R.C.P. (C.), D.A.B.M.T,  Directeur, Toxicologie médicale, L’Hôpital de Montréal pour enfants,  Consultant, Centre Anti-Poison du Québec [ http://www.ctq.qc.ca/jan98clin.htm]; the drawing is from "La  Flore laurentienne", Frère Marie-Victorin, 1964, p 462).  Dry seeds are also a rich source of a chitin-binding lectinusually referred to as Datura stramonium agglutinin (DSA) or Datura stramonium lectin (DSL). DSL interferes with bacterial motility upon release from the seed.
• other images are taken with permission from the WEB sites they are linked to.