Predicting promiscuity

摘要

The metaphor of drugs acting as 'magic bullets', selectively binding to specific physiological targets, dates back to Paul Ehrlich and the foundation of modern drug discovery. But in recent years, the observation that drugs often bind to more than one molecular target - that they exhibit polypharmacology - has gained attention1, suggesting that a 'magic shotgun analogy might be more apt (Fig. 1). To fully understand the actions of a drug, knowledge of its polypharmacology is clearly essential. On page 175 of this issue, Keiser et al.