Network pharmacology approaches for research of Traditional Chinese Medicines

Pharmacodynamics material basis and effective mechanisms are the two main issues to decipher the mechnisms of ac-tion of Traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) for the treatment of diseases. TCMs, in multi-component, multi-target, multi-pathway paradigm, show satisfactory clinical results in complex diseases. New ideas and methods are urgently needed to explain the complex interactions between TCMs and diseases. Network pharmacology (NP) provides a novel paradigm to uncover and visualize the under-lying interaction networks of TCMs against multifactorial diseases. The development and application of NP has promoted the safety, efficacy, and mechanism investigations of TCMs, which then reinforces the credibility and popularity of TCMs. The current organ-centricity of medicine and the one disease-one target-one drug dogma obstruct the understanding of complex diseases and the devel-opment of effective drugs. Therefore, more attentions should be paid to shift from phenotype and symptom to endotype and cause in understanding and redefining current diseases. In the past two decades, with the advent of advanced and intelligent technologies (such as metabolomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, single-cell omics, and artificial intelligence), NP has been improved and deeply implemented, and presented its great value and potential as the next drug-discovery paradigm. NP is developed to cure causal mechan-isms instead of treating symptoms. This review briefly summarizes the recent research progress on NP application in TCMs for effic-acy research, mechanism elucidation, target prediction, safety evaluation, drug repurposing, and drug design.

Automated summary

Network pharmacology provides a novel paradigm to understand the complex interactions between Traditional Chinese medicines and diseases, promoting their safety, efficacy, and mechanism investigations. Shifting from phenotype and symptom to endotype and cause is crucial for understanding and redefining current diseases.