Chapter 21 - Target Identification and Polypharmacology of Nutraceuticals

Abstract

Nutraceuticals are mostly multi-target agents and affect the cellular signaling systems in various stages. The multi-target feature of the herbal components allows interactions with several targets that might cooperate in a synergistic way. To elucidate the exact molecular mechanism that the nutraceuticals exhibit, identification of their beneficial effects at the direct protein target is extremely important. The completion of the human genome project has accelerated the development of the target identification methods and many of the traditional techniques were revisited and upgraded. In this chapter, the multi-target or polypharmacology aspects of the nutraceuticals are discussed, which is followed by a detailed overview of the contemporary procedures for the identification of the direct molecular targets of the most important active nutraceutical components.