2008, Vol. 36, Database issue | David S. Wishart*, Craig Knox, An Chi Guo, Dean Cheng, Savita Shrivastava, Dan Tzur, Bijaya Gautam and Murtaza Hassanali
DrugBank is a comprehensive and richly annotated resource that integrates detailed drug data with comprehensive information on drug targets and actions. Since its initial release in 2006, DrugBank has been widely used for in silico drug target discovery, drug design, docking or screening, metabolism prediction, interaction prediction, and pharmaceutical education. The latest version (release 2.0) has significantly expanded its content, including 60% more FDA-approved small molecule and biotech drugs, 10% more experimental drugs, and three times more non-redundant protein or drug target sequences. Each DrugCard entry now contains over 100 data fields, with half dedicated to drug/chemical data and the other half to pharmacological, pharmacogenomic, and molecular biological data. New features include food-drug interactions, drug-drug interactions, and experimental ADME data. The database's querying capabilities have been enhanced, and it now supports intelligent text search and chemical structure search tools. DrugBank also maintains extensive links to major bioinformatics and biomedical databases. The development of a custom scientific data management system (SDMS) has improved data entry, export, and annotation efficiency while maintaining rigorous standards for data validation. Future plans include extending querying capabilities, acquiring more experimental spectral data, expanding coverage of nutraceuticals, enhancing annotation of research/experimental compounds, and adding pathway or network diagrams.DrugBank is a comprehensive and richly annotated resource that integrates detailed drug data with comprehensive information on drug targets and actions. Since its initial release in 2006, DrugBank has been widely used for in silico drug target discovery, drug design, docking or screening, metabolism prediction, interaction prediction, and pharmaceutical education. The latest version (release 2.0) has significantly expanded its content, including 60% more FDA-approved small molecule and biotech drugs, 10% more experimental drugs, and three times more non-redundant protein or drug target sequences. Each DrugCard entry now contains over 100 data fields, with half dedicated to drug/chemical data and the other half to pharmacological, pharmacogenomic, and molecular biological data. New features include food-drug interactions, drug-drug interactions, and experimental ADME data. The database's querying capabilities have been enhanced, and it now supports intelligent text search and chemical structure search tools. DrugBank also maintains extensive links to major bioinformatics and biomedical databases. The development of a custom scientific data management system (SDMS) has improved data entry, export, and annotation efficiency while maintaining rigorous standards for data validation. Future plans include extending querying capabilities, acquiring more experimental spectral data, expanding coverage of nutraceuticals, enhancing annotation of research/experimental compounds, and adding pathway or network diagrams.