Network Pharmacology of Natural Products (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9783725842049)

Drug development strategies assumed that a single-target mechanism of action is the best approach for obtaining target-specific therapeutics. This model aims to treat specific conditions and is associated with fewer adverse events. However, many drugs and natural compounds interact with multiple receptors, resulting in polyvalent pharmacological and pleiotropic therapeutic activities through multitarget interactions. This development, in turn, has shifted the paradigm from a "one-target, one-drug" mode to a "network-target, multiple-component therapeutics" mode.

Developing techniques for monitoring the expression of genes, proteins, and metabolites in their entirety in cells, tissues, and organs formed the basis for the new field of systems biology. The essence of network pharmacology is to evaluate how a study drug interacts with therapeutic targets, their associated signaling pathways involved in biological and physiological processes, and the functions linked to diseases, ultimately aiming to achieve a beneficial therapeutic effect.

Network pharmacology, a relatively new discipline, has emerged recently and is rapidly developing. In 2024 alone, approximately 9000 publications on network pharmacology from around the world were cited and indexed in the PubMed database.