ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Retrometabolic drug design

Okay kiddo, let me explain this to you. Have you ever played a game where you need to find a key to unlock a door? Well, scientists are playing a game too, but instead of finding a key, they are looking for a way to make a medicine that can help people who are sick.

Now, sometimes scientists find a medicine that works really well for a certain illness, but it also has some bad side effects. That's not good, right? So, what they do is they try to change the medicine a little bit so it can still cure the illness but with fewer side effects.

This is where retrometabolic drug design comes in. It's a very long and complicated name, but basically it means that scientists are trying to design a medicine that will quickly turn into harmless substances once it's been used by the body. It’s like building a sandcastle at the beach, you have to be careful to make it strong enough, but you also want it to disappear once you leave.

This is important because if a medicine stays in the body for too long, it can cause harmful effects. But if it turns into harmless substances, then it won't cause any harm. This can be really helpful for people who are sick because they can take the medicine they need without worrying about getting sick from the medicine itself.

So, in shorter words, retrometabolic drug design is like building a medicine that disappears once it has done its job, just like a sandcastle at the beach. It helps people get better without causing any harm.