Biomaterial Database

Drug candidates from traditional chinese medicines. 2008

Jing-Fang Wang, and Dong-Qing Wei, and Kuo-Chen Chou

Bioinformatics Center, Key Lab of Systems Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.

Good progress has been made to modernize traditional Chinese medicines by obtaining active components from natural herbs. In this review, some recent works on procuring active components and modernizing traditional Chinese medicines will be covered. In addition, some recent works on drug design using modern drug design tools have been described. With some well defined targets, the traditional Chinese medicine databases have been screened so as to identify those compounds for which the potential as a drug candidate was not known before. Among these studies, two have been selected as examples to be discussed in details. First, new anti-HIV candidates have been detected, namely leucovorin and agaritine derivatives. Subsequently, GTS-21 is proved to be a good candidate for Alzheimer's disease. All these findings may provide useful information for finding effective drug candidates with lower cost.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008516	Medicine, Chinese Traditional	A system of traditional medicine which is based on the beliefs and practices of the Chinese culture.	Chinese Medicine, Traditional,Chung I Hsueh,Traditional Medicine, Chinese,Zhong Yi Xue,Chinese Traditional Medicine,Traditional Chinese Medicine,Traditional Tongue Assessment,Traditional Tongue Diagnosis,Hsueh, Chung I,Tongue Assessment, Traditional,Tongue Diagnoses, Traditional,Tongue Diagnosis, Traditional,Traditional Tongue Assessments,Traditional Tongue Diagnoses
D008958	Models, Molecular	Models used experimentally or theoretically to study molecular shape, electronic properties, or interactions; includes analogous molecules, computer-generated graphics, and mechanical structures.	Molecular Models,Model, Molecular,Molecular Model
D008969	Molecular Sequence Data	Descriptions of specific amino acid, carbohydrate, or nucleotide sequences which have appeared in the published literature and/or are deposited in and maintained by databanks such as GENBANK, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), National Biomedical Research Foundation (NBRF), or other sequence repositories.	Sequence Data, Molecular,Molecular Sequencing Data,Data, Molecular Sequence,Data, Molecular Sequencing,Sequencing Data, Molecular
D004365	Drugs, Chinese Herbal	Chinese herbal or plant extracts which are used as drugs to treat diseases or promote general well-being. The concept does not include synthesized compounds manufactured in China.	Chinese Herbal Drugs,Plant Extracts, Chinese,Chinese Drugs, Plant,Chinese Plant Extracts,Extracts, Chinese Plant,Herbal Drugs, Chinese
D000595	Amino Acid Sequence	The order of amino acids as they occur in a polypeptide chain. This is referred to as the primary structure of proteins. It is of fundamental importance in determining PROTEIN CONFORMATION.	Protein Structure, Primary,Amino Acid Sequences,Sequence, Amino Acid,Sequences, Amino Acid,Primary Protein Structure,Primary Protein Structures,Protein Structures, Primary,Structure, Primary Protein,Structures, Primary Protein
D000962	Antimalarials	Agents used in the treatment of malaria. They are usually classified on the basis of their action against plasmodia at different stages in their life cycle in the human. (From AMA, Drug Evaluations Annual, 1992, p1585)	Anti-Malarial,Antimalarial,Antimalarial Agent,Antimalarial Drug,Anti-Malarials,Antimalarial Agents,Antimalarial Drugs,Agent, Antimalarial,Agents, Antimalarial,Anti Malarial,Anti Malarials,Drug, Antimalarial,Drugs, Antimalarial
D000975	Antioxidants	Naturally occurring or synthetic substances that inhibit or retard oxidation reactions. They counteract the damaging effects of oxidation in animal tissues.	Anti-Oxidant,Antioxidant,Antioxidant Activity,Endogenous Antioxidant,Endogenous Antioxidants,Anti-Oxidant Effect,Anti-Oxidant Effects,Anti-Oxidants,Antioxidant Effect,Antioxidant Effects,Activity, Antioxidant,Anti Oxidant,Anti Oxidant Effect,Anti Oxidant Effects,Anti Oxidants,Antioxidant, Endogenous,Antioxidants, Endogenous
D015195	Drug Design	The molecular designing of drugs for specific purposes (such as DNA-binding, enzyme inhibition, anti-cancer efficacy, etc.) based on knowledge of molecular properties such as activity of functional groups, molecular geometry, and electronic structure, and also on information cataloged on analogous molecules. Drug design is generally computer-assisted molecular modeling and does not include PHARMACOKINETICS, dosage analysis, or drug administration analysis.	Computer-Aided Drug Design,Computerized Drug Design,Drug Modeling,Pharmaceutical Design,Computer Aided Drug Design,Computer-Aided Drug Designs,Computerized Drug Designs,Design, Pharmaceutical,Drug Design, Computer-Aided,Drug Design, Computerized,Drug Designs,Drug Modelings,Pharmaceutical Designs
D016333	HIV Protease	Enzyme of the human immunodeficiency virus that is required for post-translational cleavage of gag and gag-pol precursor polyproteins into functional products needed for viral assembly. HIV protease is an aspartic protease encoded by the amino terminus of the pol gene.	HIV Proteinase,HTLV-III Protease,p16 pol gene product, HIV,p16 protease, HIV,HIV p16 protease,HTLV III Protease,Protease, HIV,Protease, HTLV-III
D016415	Sequence Alignment	The arrangement of two or more amino acid or base sequences from an organism or organisms in such a way as to align areas of the sequences sharing common properties. The degree of relatedness or homology between the sequences is predicted computationally or statistically based on weights assigned to the elements aligned between the sequences. This in turn can serve as a potential indicator of the genetic relatedness between the organisms.	Sequence Homology Determination,Determination, Sequence Homology,Alignment, Sequence,Alignments, Sequence,Determinations, Sequence Homology,Sequence Alignments,Sequence Homology Determinations