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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2024.1419110
This article is part of the Research Topic Network Polypharmacology of ATP-binding Cassette (ABC) and Solute Carrier (SLC) Transporters View all 5 articles

Medicinal Polypharmacology - A Scientific Glossary of Terms and Concepts

Provisionally accepted
Sven M. Stefan Sven M. Stefan 1,2*Muhammad Rafehi Muhammad Rafehi 3*
  • 1 Lübeck Institute of Experimental Dermatology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
  • 2 Medical University of Lublin, Lublin, Lublin, Poland
  • 3 Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Medicinal polypharmacology is one answer to the complex reality of multifactorial human diseases that are often unresponsive to single-targeted treatment. It is an admittance that intrinsic feedback mechanisms, cross-talk, and disease networks necessitate drugs with broad modes-of-action and multitarget affinities. Medicinal polypharmacology grew to an independent research field within the last two decades and stretches from basic drug development to clinical research. It has developed its very own terminology embedded in general terms of pharmaceutical drug discovery and development at the cross-road between medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, and clinical pharmacology. A clear and precise language of critical terms and a thorough understanding of underlying concepts is imperative; however, no comprehensive work exists to this date that could support researchers in this and adjacent research fields. In order to explore novel options, to establish interdisciplinary collaborations, and to generate high-quality research output, the present work provides a first-in-field glossary to clarify on the numerous terms that originated from various individual disciplines.

    Keywords: Polypharmacolome, drug repurposing, Target repurposing, privileged structures, Privileged ligands, Network Pharmacology, chemogenomic space, Superfolds

    Received: 17 Apr 2024; Accepted: 30 Apr 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Stefan and Rafehi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Sven M. Stefan, Lübeck Institute of Experimental Dermatology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, 23538, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
    Muhammad Rafehi, Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, 37075, Lower Saxony, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.