HIT

HIT maps molecular targets of herbal active ingredients to support mechanistic investigation and drug-discovery research.

Key Features:

• Comprehensive molecular target information: Includes proteins directly or indirectly activated or inhibited by herbal ingredients, protein binders, enzymes whose substrates or products interact with these compounds, and genes upregulated or downregulated by treatment.
• Extensive literature curation: Derived from over 3,250 scientific literature sources and comprising 5,208 entries linking 586 herbal compounds to 1,301 protein targets, of which 221 are identified as direct targets.
• Integration with external databases: Crosslinks entries to the Therapeutic Targets Database (TTD), DrugBank, KEGG, PDB, Uniprot, Pfam, NCBI, and TCM-ID.
• Query capabilities: Supports keyword and similarity-based queries for retrieval of relevant compound–target information.
• Experimental and bioactivity data: Records experimental conditions and observed bioactivities associated with each herbal ingredient and provides literature references.

Scientific Applications:

• Drug discovery and development: Facilitates identification and prioritization of herbal compounds and protein targets relevant to therapeutic development.
• Mechanistic studies of herbal medicine: Enables analysis of molecular mechanisms through documented compound–target interactions and gene regulation data.
• Ethnopharmacology and natural product research: Supports investigation of Chinese herbs and other traditional remedies through mapped molecular targets.
• Identification of novel drug candidates: Provides bioactivity and target association data that can be used to nominate herbal compounds for further validation.

Methodology:

Curated from >3,250 scientific literature sources and crosslinked to TTD, DrugBank, KEGG, PDB, Uniprot, Pfam, NCBI, and TCM-ID.