DrugCentral: online drug compendium.

Area of Science:

• Pharmacology and Cheminformatics
• Drug Discovery and Development
• Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

Background:

• DrugCentral serves as a comprehensive, open-access online drug compendium.
• Existing resources often lack integrated data on drug structure, bioactivity, and regulatory information.
• There is a need for a centralized resource that bridges molecular data with clinical applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present DrugCentral, an integrated online drug compendium.
• To detail the data types and integration strategies employed in DrugCentral.
• To highlight the resource's utility for researchers and text mining applications.

Main Methods:

• Integration of data from regulatory agencies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
• Inclusion of chemical structures, bioactivity data, pharmacologic actions, and indications for active pharmaceutical ingredients.
• Cross-referencing with external online drug resources and chemical collections.
• Development of a web application and a downloadable relational database format.

Main Results:

• DrugCentral provides comprehensive data on FDA-approved drugs and other regulatory agency-approved active pharmaceutical ingredients.
• The compendium integrates chemical structures, bioactivity, pharmacology, and indications.
• Analysis of chemical structure overlap with other resources and drug presence in chemical collections was performed.
• The resource facilitates text mining for drug adverse events and clinical trial information.

Conclusions:

• DrugCentral offers a valuable, integrated resource for drug information, bridging molecular details with clinical applications.
• Its comprehensive data and cross-referencing capabilities enhance its utility and complementarity with other resources.
• The compendium supports various research endeavors, including drug discovery, development, and adverse event monitoring.