"In recent years the single-probe-single-target approach in drug design has started to be smoothly replaced by the single-probe-multiple-target or multi-target) one, where a single drug is able to tackle different, but disease-related targets in a selective manner. However, the design of multi-target drugs has been hindered by a lack of a systematic network of disease-related common pathways," researchers in the United States report (see also Addiction Medicine).

"The recent development of the knowledgebase of addiction-related genes (KARG) has provided important hints on how to rationally design multi-target probes by connecting experimental techniques with available network models. In this perspective, the use of KARG as a template to build knowledgebases of disease-related genes for the rational multi-target drug design is suggested," wrote L.M. Espinozafonseca and colleagues, University of Minnesota.

The researchers concluded: "Moreover, it is proposed that building knowledgebases of disease-related genes will become a necessary and ubiquitous tool in the rational design of multi-target drugs."