Drug discovery and development for rare genetic disorders

Approximately 7,000 rare diseases affect millions of individuals in the United States. Although rare diseases taken together have an enormous impact, there is a significant gap between basic research and clinical interventions. Opportunities now exist to accelerate drug development for the treatment of rare diseases. Disease foundations and research centers worldwide focus on better understanding rare disorders. Here, the state-of-the-art drug discovery strategies for small molecules and biological approaches for orphan diseases are reviewed. Rare diseases are usually genetic diseases; hence, employing pharmacogenetics to develop treatments and using whole genome sequencing to identify the etiologies for such diseases are appropriate strategies to exploit. Beginning with high throughput screening of small molecules, the benefits and challenges of target-based and phenotypic screens are discussed. Explanations and examples of drug repurposing are given; drug repurposing as an approach to quickly move programs to clinical trials is evaluated. Consideration is given to the category of biologics which include gene therapy, recombinant proteins, and autologous transplants. Disease models, including animal models and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from patients, are surveyed. Finally, the role of biomarkers in drug discovery and development, as well as clinical trials, is elucidated.