Open AccessRole of systems pharmacology in understanding drug adverse events
Author(s) -
Berger Seth I.,
Iyengar Ravi
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
wiley interdisciplinary reviews: systems biology and medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.087
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1939-005X
pISSN - 1939-5094
DOI - 10.1002/wsbm.114
Subject(s) - systems pharmacology , drug , adverse effect , systems biology , context (archaeology) , pharmacology , computational biology , medicine , safer , identification (biology) , drug discovery , clinical pharmacology , computer science , translational medicine , bioinformatics , biology , botany , computer security , pathology , paleontology
Systems pharmacology involves the application of systems biology approaches, combining large‐scale experimental studies with computational analyses, to the study of drugs, drug targets, and drug effects. Many of these initial studies have focused on identifying new drug targets, new uses of known drugs, and systems‐level properties of existing drugs. This review focuses on systems pharmacology studies that aim to better understand drug side effects and adverse events. By studying the drugs in the context of cellular networks, these studies provide insights into adverse events caused by off‐targets of drugs as well as adverse events‐mediated complex network responses. This allows rapid identification of biomarkers for side effect susceptibility. In this way, systems pharmacology will lead to not only newer and more effective therapies, but safer medications with fewer side effects. WIREs Syst Biol Med 2011 3 129–135 DOI: 10.1002/wsbm.114 This article is categorized under: Analytical and Computational Methods > Computational Methods Translational, Genomic, and Systems Medicine > Therapeutic Methods Analytical and Computational Methods > Topological Methods