Drug target identification can help establish the association between drug activity and phenotypes, elucidate the mechanism of action, discover off-target effects and drug resistance mechanisms, discover new targets for therapeutic drugs, and predict possible side effects and toxicity at an early stage of drug discovery, thereby reducing the risk of failure in drug development. Although rapid progress has been made in scientific discoveries and technological advancements, the identification of drug targets is still a daunting task. Herein, the research progress in drug target identification during the past decade, especially novel technologies without chemical labeling, have been reviewed.
Keywords: chemical proteomics; drug target identification; review.