Databases: Drug Adverse Reaction Target database (DART)

DRUG ADVERSE REACTION TARGET DATABASE (DART)

1. An adverse drug reaction (ADR) is an unexpected or dangerous event caused by taking a medication. It may occur due to a single dose or prolonged administration of a drug or result from the combination of two or more drugs. It often caused by the interaction of a drug or its metabolites with specific protein targets important in normal cellular function. Knowledge about these targets is both important in facilitating the study of the mechanisms of adverse drug reaction and in new drug discovery. The Drug Adverse Reaction Database (DART) is intended to provide comprehensive information about adverse effect targets of drugs described in the literature.

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   Figure 1: The image above shows the homepage of the DART which is the abbreviation of Drug Adverse Reaction Database.
   
   

   Furthermore, this database gives physiological function of each target, binding drugs, agonists or antagonists, activators or inhibitors, corresponding adverse effects, and type of adverse effects induced by drug binding to a target. Cross-links to other databases are also introduced to facilitate the access of information about the sequence, 3-dimensional structure, function, and nomenclature of each target along with drug or ligand binding properties. The database currently contains entries for 147 adverse reaction targets and 89 potential targets. A total of 187 adverse reaction conditions, 257 drugs, and 1080 ligands known to bind to each of these targets are also currently described.

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   Figure 2: The image shows the results obtained from Drug Adverse Reaction Target database (DART) after an entry of choline esterase as a target.

   
   

   For instance, the images above shows the results obtained from the search of choline esterase as the target. It allows users to input targets, potential targets, adverse reaction conditions, drugs and ligands as shown in the image above. Moreover, each entry can be retrieved through multiple search methods including target name, target physiological function, adverse effect, ligand name, and biological pathways.

   
   

   In nutshell, Drug Adverse Reaction Target database (DART) is a database used for for facilitating the search for drug adverse reaction target. This database contains information about known drug adverse reaction targets, functions and properties. It also includes the associated references. In short, it allows users to access information about the adverse reaction targets of drugs which enhances the new drug discovery.