title: TarNet: An Evidence-Based Database for Natural Medicine Research.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Complex diseases seriously threaten human health. Drug discovery approaches based on "single genes, single drugs, and single targets" are limited in targeting complex diseases. The development of new multicomponent drugs for complex diseases is imperative, and the establishment of a suitable solution for drug group-target protein network analysis is a key scientific problem that must be addressed. Herbal medicines have formed the basis of sophisticated systems of traditional medicine and have given rise to some key drugs that remain in use today. The search for new molecules is currently taking a different route, whereby scientific principles of ethnobotany and ethnopharmacognosy are being used by chemists in the discovery of different sources and classes of compounds.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this study, we developed TarNet, a manually curated database and platform of traditional medicinal plants with natural compounds that includes potential bio-target information. We gathered information on proteins that are related to or affected by medicinal plant ingredients and data on protein-protein interactions (PPIs). TarNet includes in-depth information on both plant-compound-protein relationships and PPIs. Additionally, TarNet can provide researchers with network construction analyses of biological pathways and protein-protein interactions (PPIs) associated with specific diseases. Researchers can upload a gene or protein list mapped to our PPI database that has been manually curated to generate relevant networks. Multiple functions are accessible for network topological calculations, subnetwork analyses, pathway analyses, and compound-protein relationships.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  TarNet will serve as a useful analytical tool that will provide information on medicinal plant compound-affected proteins (potential targets) and system-level analyses for systems biology and network pharmacology researchers. TarNet is freely available at http://www.herbbol.org:8001/tarnet, and detailed tutorials on the program are also available.
authors.affiliation: Beijing Key Laboratory of Innovative Drug Discovery of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Natural Medicine) and Translational Medicine, Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.|Key Laboratory of Bioactive Substances and Resource Utilization of Chinese Herbal Medicine, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China.|Zhongguancun Open Laboratory of the Research and Development of Natural Medicine and Health Products, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Ruifeng
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5549-3082
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Beijing Key Laboratory of Innovative Drug Discovery of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Natural Medicine) and Translational Medicine, Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.|Key Laboratory of Bioactive Substances and Resource Utilization of Chinese Herbal Medicine, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China.|Zhongguancun Open Laboratory of the Research and Development of Natural Medicine and Health Products, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Guomin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Beijing Key Laboratory of Innovative Drug Discovery of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Natural Medicine) and Translational Medicine, Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.|Key Laboratory of Bioactive Substances and Resource Utilization of Chinese Herbal Medicine, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China.|Zhongguancun Open Laboratory of the Research and Development of Natural Medicine and Health Products, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Guibo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Beijing Key Laboratory of Innovative Drug Discovery of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Natural Medicine) and Translational Medicine, Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.|Key Laboratory of Bioactive Substances and Resource Utilization of Chinese Herbal Medicine, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China.|Zhongguancun Open Laboratory of the Research and Development of Natural Medicine and Health Products, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xiaobo
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D001688:Biological Products; D016208:Databases, Factual; D055808:Drug Discovery; D006801:Humans; D008519:Medicine, Traditional; D010946:Plants, Medicinal; D025941:Protein Interaction Mapping; D060066:Protein Interaction Maps; D012106:Research; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D064878:Web Browser
chemical_list: D001688:Biological Products