The Intelligence Research Of Scientific And Technical Issues Related To Drug Targets

With the completion of Human Genome Project, the discovery of gene function and the achievement of various high-throughput screening methods, drug targets has become an important part of modern drug research and development. Nevertheless, there are still a series of scientific and technical issues unresolved. For example, the number of new drugs has not increased as the rising potential drug targets, but showed a tendency of decreasing. A deep and systemic study of the scientific and technical issues related to drug targets with intelligence methods would help us to estimate the prospects of drug targets, the key issues urgent to be resolved, and the emerging opportunities and challenges, thus providing valuable reference information for Chinese drug targets development.From the perspective of intelligence research, the present study, with the focus on the scientific and technical issues related to drug targets, comprehensively discussed the theory of drug targets, systemically analyzed the impact of the scientific and technical development on drug targets, thoroughly investigated the status and internal characteristics of drug targets, and elaborated the patented environments around drug targets. On the basis of the above research, we put forward the corresponding strategies and suggestions on the development of drug targets in China.This paper is divided into six parts.The first part is the theoretical study of drug targets. This part reviewed the literatures related to drug targets from Pubmed database with qualitative research methods. We made analysis from the perspectives of theoretical background, the connotative changes, the development of drug targets pattern, the definition of"druggable targets"and the main influential factors of drug targets.The second part is the impact study of science and technology on drug targets development. Using qualitative research methods, we analyzed the literatures related to drug targets from Pubmed database and Qinghua full-text database. We compared the scientific and technical policies related to drug targets in the United States, the European Union, Japan and China. We also elaborated the important opportunities of drug targets under the current scientific and technical conditions. The results showed that science and technology promoted the major progress in the field of drug discovery in the past, changed the external environment for drug targets development, and raised the efficiency of drug targets development. With the development of life science and biological technology, drug targets are gradually featured by network and diversification. Many countries have deployed the corresponding science and technical policies at the national level to encourage drug targets study of the bio-pharmaceutical companies and research institutions. Under the current scientific and technical conditions, the development of drug targets faces many opportunities such as continuous promoting targets model, gradually improving development platform, active academic exchanges and broadening application areas.The third part is the study of the status and internal characteristics of drug targets. This part analyzed more than 30,000 articles of drug targets from the Web of Science in the database with bibliometric methods, and compared the funded projects between NIH and NSFC during the same period. The results showed that the literatures of drug targets maintained a stable increase except fluctuations in particular years; there were large gaps between the United States and China in the fields of drug targets. The MeSH words-clustering analysis software was used to reveal the hot areas of drug targets, the results showed that anticancer targets and enzymes were the hot areas of the current drug targets research. This part also investigated the status and inherent characteristics of successful drug targets and drug targets which were still in pipelines with qualitative and quantitative methods. The results showed that the number of successful drug targets at present was about 500; G-protein-coupled receptor, nuclear receptor, ligand-gated ion channels as well as voltage-gated Ion channels were the four categories of the most successful drug targets; these successful drug targets mostly in cell membranes, for the treatments of cancer, cardiovascular diseases and other diseases; successful drug targets usually had internal characteristics: there were few homologues outside the targets family, and involved in few tissues and regulation pathways; drug targets which were still in pipelines mostly had excessive patents and subtypes. The major challenges in the development of drug targets lied in gradually declined production, complicated validation procedures, increasingly fierce market competition and strict surveillance and regulatory policies.The fourth part is the study of patented environmental around drug targets. Using qualitative methods, this part defined the scope of patents related to drug targets and discussed the issues of patent applications and licensing; using quantitative methods, this part made statistical analyses on the annual changes, institutes and subjects distribution. The results showed that patents related to drug targets involved in six items such as the receptor gene coding X, X receptor; the function of a specific drug target (including the target molecules in pharmacological activity by the biological role) is patentable; research institutions and biotechnology companies applied for the most patents related to drug targets.The fifth part is the study of strategies and suggestions. The contents included the prospects of drug targets, the key issues need to be resolved, and current status of drug targets research in China. This part put forwarded the strategies and suggestions specific on the development of drug targets in China. In regard of the prospects of drug targets, we found that the declining trend of new drugs was due to current drug targets facing greater difficulties than before, as well as a series of issues unresolved in scientific and technical fields, so that the development of drug targets was the inevitable result under the current science and technical tendency. In regard of the key issues need to be resolved, the study proposed some issues about science and technology, inherent characteristics of drug targets and patents, including choosing the best development platform and the appropriate innovation strategy, understanding the inherent characteristics of successful drug targets and drug targets which were still in pipelines, and defining the scope and patent applications for drug targets. In regard of current status of drug targets in China, the study elaborated the gaps and opportunities in drug targets fields. We also carried out the strategies and suggestions specific on the development of drug targets in China at policy level, scientific and technical level, the inherent characteristics of drug targets level and patent level. At the policy level, we should strengthen the confidence of drug targets, take advantage of traditional Chinese medicine to research; at scientific and technological level, we should establish a"diversified"development platform for drug targets, take the"following innovation"strategy; at the inherent characteristics of drug targets level, we should learn from the successful drug targets and caution on the targets which are still in pipelines; at patents level, it is necessary to correctly define the scope of drug targets'patents and apply for related patents and licensing reasonably.The sixth part is the main conclusion of the study. This part briefly summarized the findings and conclusions in this research, and discussed the limitations in the study.