Advances in bioinformatic methods for the acceleration of the drug discovery from nature

Drug discovery from nature has a long, ethnopharmacologically-based background. Today, natural resources are undeniably vital reservoirs of active molecules or drug leads. Advances in (bio)informatics and computational biology emphasized the role of herbal medicines in the drug discovery pipeline.

This review summarizes bioinformatic approaches applied in recent drug discovery from nature.

It examines advancements in molecular networking, pathway analysis, network pharmacology within a systems biology framework and AI for assessing the therapeutic potential of herbal preparations.

A comprehensive literature search was conducted using Pubmed, SciFinder, and Google Database. Obtained data was analyzed and organized in subsections: AI, systems biology integrative approach, network pharmacology, pathway analysis, molecular networking, structure-based virtual screening.

Bioinformatic approaches is now essential for high-throughput data analysis in drug target identification, mechanism-based drug discovery, drug repurposing and side-effects prediction. Large datasets obtained from "omics" approaches require bioinformatic calculations to unveil interactions, and patterns in disease-relevant conditions. These tools enable databases annotations, pattern-matching, connections discovery, molecular relationship exploration, and data visualisation.

Despite the complexity of plant metabolites, bioinformatic approaches assist in characterization of herbal preparations and selection of bioactive molecule. It is perceived as powerful tool for uncovering multi-target effects and potential molecular mechanisms of compounds. By integrating multiple networks that connect gene-disease, drug-target and gene-drug-target, drug discovery from natural sources is experiencing a remarkable comeback.