Abstract

With the advancement of “proteomics” data and systems biology, new techniques are needed to meet the new era of drug discovery. Network theory is increasingly applied to describe complex biological systems, thus implying its essential roles in system-based drug design. In this review, we first summarized general network parameters used in describing biological systems, and then gave some recent applications of these network parameters as topological indices in drug design in terms of Protein Structure Networks (PSNs), Protein-Protein Interaction Networks (PPINs) including related structural PPINs, and Elastic Network Models (ENMs). These network models have enabled the development of new drugs relying on allosteric effects, describing anti-cancer targets, targeting hot spots and key proteins at the protein-protein interfaces and PPINs, and helped drug design by modulating conformational flexibility. Accordingly, we highlighted the integration of network models bringing new paradigms into the next-generation target-based drug discovery.

Keywords: Allosteric drugs, Biological networks, Drug targets, Hot spots, structural PPINs, Target flexibility.

Graphical Abstract