ReviewNature reviews. Drug discovery2017
A comprehensive map of molecular drug targets.
Review in Nature reviews. Drug discovery, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1,159 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1,159 citing papers in PubMed, 2,383 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Subcellular photochemistry for precision spatial protein targeting.Nature reviews. Chemistry · 2026Review
- The evolving landscape of drug targets.Nature reviews. Drug discovery · 2026Review
- Technology profiles in FDA-approved new molecular entities, 2013-2024: a latent class analysis.Daru : journal of Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences · 2026Article
- Modulating pseudokinase conformation from the ATP-binding site.Structure (London, England : 1993) · 2026Article
- Artificial intelligence-assisted lead optimization in drug discovery: bridging computational advances and translational challenges.Medicinal chemistry research : an international journal for rapid communications on design and mechanisms of action of biologically active agents · 2026Review
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- Integration of proteomic aging clocks in a phase 2a clinical trial supports simultaneous geroprotective assessment.Nature biotechnology · 2026Article
- Plasma apolipoprotein E protein attenuates pulmonary fibrosis through LRP1 and PLAU dual receptor-mediated TGF-β/Smad inhibition.Journal of advanced research · 2026Article
- Targeting the GPR183/EBI2‒oxysterol axis in tuberculosis: Immunometabolic regulation and prospects for host-directed therapy.Clinical and translational medicine · 2026Review
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- Review
- Structural Remodeling of Mitochondrial Membranes in Cancerous Colon Cells: Insights from Neutron Scattering and Lipidomics.ACS bio & med chem Au · 2026Article
- A survey of transformer and LLM-based architectures, workflows, and systems in drug discovery.Journal of computer-aided molecular design · 2026Review
- Pharmacological Relevance of β-, γ-, and LINGO Auxiliary Subunits in BK Channel Modulation.ChemMedChem · 2026Review
- Predicting Ligand Binding Modes by Scaffold-Guided Structure Refinement.Journal of medicinal chemistry · 2026Article
- Artificial intelligence empowers targeted protein degradation: Core technological innovations, multi-scenario applications, and translational prospects.Smart molecules : open access · 2026Review
1,099 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The success of mechanism-based drug discovery depends on the definition of the drug target. This definition becomes even more important as we try to link drug response to genetic variation, understand stratified clinical efficacy and safety, rationalize the differences between drugs in the same therapeutic class and predict drug utility in patient subgroups. However, drug targets are often poorly defined in the literature, both for launched drugs and for potential therapeutic agents in discovery and development. Here, we present an updated comprehensive map of molecular targets of approved drugs. We curate a total of 893 human and pathogen-derived biomolecules through which 1,578 US FDA-approved drugs act. These biomolecules include 667 human-genome-derived proteins targeted by drugs for human disease. Analysis of these drug targets indicates the continued dominance of privileged target families across disease areas, but also the growth of novel first-in-class mechanisms, particularly in oncology. We explore the relationships between bioactivity class and clinical success, as well as the presence of orthologues between human and animal models and between pathogen and human genomes. Through the collaboration of three independent teams, we highlight some of the ongoing challenges in accurately defining the targets of molecular therapeutics and present conventions for deconvoluting the complexities of molecular pharmacology and drug efficacy.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.