HerbComb: An integrated database for the discovery of novel combinational therapies from herbal medicines
Authors:
Open Access
- 1 January 2025
- journal article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal
- Vol. 27, 4915-4935
Abstract
Drug combinations have gained increasing interest due to their potential for optimal efficacy and for overcoming drug resistance. Herbal medicine is a complex system with multiple ingredients and has illustrated apparent therapeutic effects through thousands of years of clinical experience, offering a rich resource for combinational therapies. However, the underlying mechanisms of their synergistic therapeutic effects in disease treatment remain obscure for most herbal medicines. To fill this gap, we developed an integrated database, HerbComb (https://herbcomb.com/), to discover combinatorial therapies in herbal medicine, featuring three unique functions: drug prepositioning, customized combinatorial analysis, and biological and pharmacological features. Additionally, transcriptional gene signatures and ADMET properties were also interrogated as interactive functionalities to facilitate combinational analysis. Using Tongxinluo for Stroke as a case study, we identified and validated Oleanolic acid and Ferulic acid as synergistic ingredients. In summary, HerbComb is a versatile data exploration platform designed to characterize synergistic interactions among herbal medicines, enhance understanding of synergistic mechanisms, and facilitate the discovery of effective drug combinations.Keywords
All Related Versions
Funding Information
- Research Council of Finland
- Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
This publication has 60 references indexed in Scilit:
- Therapeutic potentialities of green tea (Camellia sinensis) in ischemic stroke: biochemical and molecular evidenceMetabolic Brain Disease, 2023
- ETCM v2.0: An update with comprehensive resource and rich annotations for traditional Chinese medicineActa Pharmaceutica Sinica B, 2023
- ccTCM: A quantitative component and compound platform for promoting the research of traditional Chinese medicineComputational and Structural Biotechnology Journal, 2023
- New opportunities and challenges of natural products research: When target identification meets single-cell multiomicsActa Pharmaceutica Sinica B, 2022
- Therapeutic targets of neuroprotection and neurorestoration in ischemic stroke: Applications for natural compounds from medicinal herbsBiomedicine & Pharmacotherapy, 2022
- A comprehensive review of integrative pharmacology-based investigation: A paradigm shift in traditional Chinese medicineActa Pharmaceutica Sinica B, 2021
- Oleanolic acid inhibits mouse spinal cord injury through suppressing inflammation and apoptosis via the blockage of p38 and JNK MAPKsBiomedicine & Pharmacotherapy, 2020
- Stroke in the Young: a Global UpdateCurrent Neurology and Neuroscience Reports, 2019
- Ferulic Acid Modulates Dysfunctional Metabolic Pathways and Purinergic Activities, While Stalling Redox Imbalance and Cholinergic Activities in Oxidative Brain InjuryNeurotoxicity Research, 2019
- YaTCM: Yet another Traditional Chinese Medicine Database for Drug DiscoveryComputational and Structural Biotechnology Journal, 2018