Orphan drugs-The US Orphan Drug Act (1984) defines an orphan drug as one with “efficacy against a disease affecting fewer than 200 000 people. The European Community definition is less than 5 in 10 000, and the World Health Organization has suggested less than 6.5-10 in 10 000. These numbers translate to prevalences of 1-8 in 10 000. The US definition of a rare disease is one that affects less than 200 000 individuals the corresponding number in Japan is 50 000 and in Australia 2000. Rare diseases-The National Institutes of Health Office of Rare Diseases lists more than 6000, from Aagenaes syndrome to Zuska's disease. Orphan receptors, such as the opioid OP4 receptor identified from gene sequences, have no known endogenous ligands or physiological functions. Orphan enzymes have catalytic sites that can be occupied by millimolar concentrations of ethanol but have no known physiological roles. An orphan virus, such as hepatitis G, is one without a recognised associated disease. Modern metaphorical meanings of orphan include a discontinued model of a motor vehicle and a line of type beginning a new paragraph at the bottom of a column or page. And the etymology reflects the link between orphans and the workhouse.
( Rossum's Universal Robots, 1920) to denote an imagined race of mechanical people. Karel Èapek coined the word robot (female robotka) in his play R.U.R. One bereft of freedom is a slave, forced into hard work, as in the German Arbeit and the Czech robota. Its Indo-European root was ORBH (bereft) giving the Latin orbus and the obsolete English words orbation and orbity (orphanhood or childlessness). Metaphorically it denoted poverty and unspiced food. Orphan comes from the Greek orphanos (a child deprived of one parent or both, or an adult deprived of a child). Rare comes from the Latin rarus (loosely spaced or sparse) and eventually from the putative Indo-European root ERE, denoting separation, as in hermits and eremites and the net-like structures rete, retinaculum, and retina.
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