Pharmaceuticals (Jul 2024)

Network Medicine: A Potential Approach for Virtual Drug Screening

  • Mingxuan Ma,
  • Mei Huang,
  • Yinting He,
  • Jiansong Fang,
  • Jiachao Li,
  • Xiaohan Li,
  • Mengchen Liu,
  • Mei Zhou,
  • Guozhen Cui,
  • Qing Fan

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/ph17070899
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 17, no. 7
p. 899

Abstract

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Traditional drug screening methods typically focus on a single protein target and exhibit limited efficiency due to the multifactorial nature of most diseases, which result from disturbances within complex networks of protein–protein interactions rather than single gene abnormalities. Addressing this limitation requires a comprehensive drug screening strategy. Network medicine is rooted in systems biology and provides a comprehensive framework for understanding disease mechanisms, prevention, and therapeutic innovations. This approach not only explores the associations between various diseases but also quantifies the relationships between disease genes and drug targets within interactome networks, thus facilitating the prediction of drug–disease relationships and enabling the screening of therapeutic drugs for specific complex diseases. An increasing body of research supports the efficiency and utility of network-based strategies in drug screening. This review highlights the transformative potential of network medicine in virtual therapeutic screening for complex diseases, offering novel insights and a robust foundation for future drug discovery endeavors.

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