The key was finding substances that would act selectively - that would affect cancer cells, for example, but not normal cells.
As a result, they act more selectively upon the heart.
It is among several estrogen-like compounds in the pharmaceutical pipeline that can act selectively on estrogen-sensitive tissues, although none is as far along the road to approval as raloxifene.
Botox's potential advantage is that it selectively acts on motor control without impairing sensory perception.
Another subclass consists of drugs selectively acting at the 5-HT receptors, and thus are known as 5-HT antagonists.
It is a partial agonist acting selectively at the benzodiazepine site of the GABA receptor.
Vortices like that can't act selectively.
Jasmonates: novel anticancer agents acting directly and selectively on human cancer cell mitochondria.
SERMs are a category of drugs that act selectively as agonists or antagonists on the estrogen receptors throughout the body.
To prevent this, much research has been focused recently on the elaboration of selectively acting glucocorticoid drugs.