“The Topology of Drug-Target Interaction Networks: Implicit Dependence on Drug Properties and Target Families”, 2009-07-08 (; backlinks; similar):
The availability of interaction data between small molecule drugs and protein targets has increased substantially in recent years.
Using 7 different databases, we were able to assemble a total of:
4,767 unique interactions between 802 drugs and 480 targets, which means that on average every drug is currently acknowledged to interact with 6 targets.
The application of network theory to the analysis of these data reveals an unexpectedly complex picture of drug-target interactions. The results confirm that the topology of drug-target networks depends implicitly on data completeness, drug properties, and target families.
The implications for drug discovery are discussed.