In the current field of drug research and development, the study of drug targets has become an important issue. They are biomolecules that can be bound by drugs or other compounds in the body to initiate biological effects, involving key links in life activities or diseases. Understanding and mastering the basic knowledge of drug targets is of great significance for drug development, clinical use, and treatment effect assessment.
Part One: Drug Target Data
Compared with researching ways of drug design and synthesis, tools for understanding drug and target interactions from various aspects such as structure-activity relationships and drug similarity landscapes are key to developing new drugs. These data include not only drugs and targets, but also poor binding and non-binding compounds developed for discovering new drugs, surrogate drugs for improving treatment, cooperative targets of therapeutic targets for multi-target strategies and off-target investigations, and collective structure-activity and drug similarity landscapes for enhancing drug characteristics. However, these valuable data are underutilized in the available databases.
For example, Synapse database is a unique bioinformatics and cheminformatics resource that provides detailed drug (such as chemistry, pharmacology, and pharmacokinetic properties) and drug target (such as sequence, structure, and pathway) information, representing one of the most authoritative and widely used drug target databases.
Part Two: What are Potential Targets?
Potential drug targets are molecules or cell tissues that play a decisive or important role in the disease process, which may not yet be widely used or researched, but it is hoped that significant changes in the progress and condition of the disease can be made through drug intervention. For example, the regulation of a certain protein may prevent or delay the development of a disease, and this protein can be considered as a potential target.
Part Three: What are Hot Targets?
On the contrary, the so-called “hot targets” usually refer to the targets of current key research and clinical trials, with the main criterion being their significant therapeutic effects shown in laboratory and clinical research. Common hot targets include PD-1/PD-L1, HER2/neu, and BRAF V600E, which play important roles in cancer treatment, breast cancer treatment, and malignant melanoma treatment.
Part Four: The Value and Challenges of Potential Targets and Hot Targets
Research on potential targets and hot targets can help promote the innovation of drug discovery and therapies. However, the discovery and validation of drug targets is a complex, time-consuming, and costly process.
Compared with hot targets, potential targets are relatively in the early stages, so their drug development and clinical trial success rates are relatively lower, and the scientific research investment and risks are relatively greater. Overemphasis on hot targets may lead to neglect of other therapeutic potential targets, limiting the diversity and breadth of drug development.
Conclusion:
A comprehensive study of drug targets can not only promote the research progress in related fields, but also help the development and introduction of new drugs. Potential targets and hot targets are two types of targets often focused on by the pharmaceutical industry, and they play an irreplaceable role in different disease prevention and treatment and drug development. We hope that by interpreting the basic knowledge of drug targets, we can bring some insights and reflections to everyone and promote the healthy development of future drug research.