药物靶点通常是在代谢或信号通路中与特定疾病或病理状态有关的关键分子.通过绑定到特定活动区域抑制这个关键分子进行药物设计.确定特定疾病有关的靶标分子是现代新药开发的基础.在药物靶标发现的过程中,生物信息学方法发挥了不可替代的重要的作用,尤其适用于大规模多组学数据的分析.目前,已涌现了许多与疾病相关的数据库资源,基于生物网络特征、多基因芯片、蛋白质组、代谢组数据等建立了多种生物信息学方法发现潜在的药物靶标,并预测靶标可药性和药物副作用.
Typically a drug target is a key molecule involved in a particular metabolic or signaling pathway,that is specific to a disease condition or pathology.Drugs may be designed that bind to the active region and inhibit this key molecule.Determining specific disease-related target molecules is the basis of modern drug development.In the process of drug target discovery,bioinformatics methods play irreplaceable roles,especially suited for the analyses of large-scale and multi-omics data.On current,many disease-related database resources have emerged.Various bioinformatics methods have been established based on biological network characteristics,multiple gene chips,proteomics and metabolomics data to discover potential drug targets,and predict the target druggability and side effects of drugs.