Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
As far as the laws of chemistry and molecular biology refer to chemical toxicity, they are
not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to chemical toxicity.
(20.1)
20.2 The Pharmacological Uncertainty Principle (PUP)
According to the Knowledge Uncertainty Principle (Sect.
5.2.7
), all our knowledge
about how drugs work in the human body are uncertain, which may be referred to as
the Pharmacological Uncertainty Principle (PUP). PUP has two aspects - quantita-
tive and qualitative. The quantitative aspect of PUP can be expressed in terms of the
Kosko entropy, S
K
, which can be estimated using the five-step procedures presented
in Table
20.3
in the previous section. One way to formulate the qualitative aspect of
As far as the laws of molecular mechanisms refer to drug actions, they are not certain; and
as far as they are certain, they do not refer to drug actions.
(20.2)
20.3 The Medical Uncertainty Principle (MUP)
Although not discussed explicitly among medical professionals, the fact that all our
knowledge about human diseases, despite decades of intense research, are fraught
with uncertainties is probably widely recognized. Similar to the Toxicological and
Pharmacological Uncertainty Principles described in Sects.
20.1
and
20.2
, the
Medical Uncertainty Principle (MUP) can be formulated, both quantitatively fol-
lowing the five-step procedures for estimating the associated Kosko entropies and
qualitatively using Einsteins' Uncertainty Thesis as a template. One possible
formulation of the qualitative aspect of MUP is given below:
As far as the laws of molecular biology refer to diseases, they are not certain; and as far they
are certain, they do not refer to diseases. (20.3)
If TUP, PUP, and MUP turn out to be true, they are predicted to have important
practical consequences in the fields of risk assessment, drug development, and
medicine, particularly in the emerging field of personalized medicine.
