Systems (Network) Pharmacology for Brain Functionality Restoration
Doru Georg Margineanu · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2015
Abstract Neurologic and psychiatric diseases’ etiologies are as yet poorly understood; medications merely treat the symptoms, and the prevailing reductionist focus fails to grasp the brain’s complexity and the intricacy of its dysfunctions. Reductionism led to some chief successes in molecular biology, but it fails to account for integrative biological functions that are emergent properties occurring only at the organismic level. Also, the reductionist goal of single target-selective drugs, instead of substantiating an efficient drug design, caused a persistent decrease in new drug discoveries, particularly for brain diseases. In contrast to target-selective pharmacology, emergent systems (or network) pharmacology holds that drug action results from multiple interactions with manifold targets in a complex network underlying therapeutic and collateral effects. This chapter exposes the necessity of holistic-type systems biology–based approaches that embrace the intrinsic complexity of brain functional disturbances.