Guide to Pharmacology

The IUPHAR/BPS Guide to Pharmacology is an open-access website, acting as a portal to information on the biological targets of licensed drugs and other small molecules. The Guide to Pharmacology is developed as a joint venture between the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR) and the British Pharmacological Society (BPS), and incorporates the IUPHAR Database and the Guide to Receptors and Channels (GRAC). The Guide to Pharmacology aims to provide a concise overview of all pharmacological targets, accessible to all members of the scientific and clinical communities and the interested public, with links to more detailed information on a selected set of targets also available. Information from the more detailed target pages on the Guide to PHARMACOLOGY is also accessible via the IUPHAR Database. The information featured on the Guide to Pharmacology includes pharmacological data, target and gene nomenclature, and curated chemical information for ligands. Overviews and commentaries on each target family are included, with links to key references from the field.

Background and development
The Guide to Pharmacology was initially made available online in December 2011 with additional material released in July 2012. Maintained by a team of curators based at the University of Edinburgh, Guide to Pharmacology is developed by an international network of contributors, including the editors of the Guide to Receptors and Channels.

Content and features
The target groups currently included on the Guide to Pharmacology are:
 * G protein-coupled receptors
 * Ion channels
 * Nuclear receptors
 * Catalytic receptors
 * Enzymes
 * Transporters
 * Other protein targets including fatty acid-binding proteins, sigma receptors and adiponectin receptors

Information for each target group is subdivided into families based on classification, with a separate data page for each family. Within each page, targets are arranged into lists of tables, with each table including the protein and gene nomenclature for the target with links to gene nomenclature databases, and listing selected ligands with activity at the target, including agonists, antagonists, inhibitors and radioligands. Pharmacological data and references are given and each ligand is hyperlinked to a ligand page displaying its chemical structure or peptide sequence, along with synonyms and relevant database links. The Guide to Pharmacology also includes a list of all ligand molecules, subdivided into categories including small organic molecules (including mammalian metabolites, hormones and neurotransmitters), synthetic organic molecules, natural products, peptides, inorganic molecules and antibodies. A complete list of all the approved drugs included on the website is also available via the ligand list. The Guide to Pharmacology is being expanded to include clinical information on targets and ligands, in addition to education resources. Search features on the website include quick and advanced search options, receptor and ligand searches. Ligand searches using chemical structures are supported.

The Guide to Receptors and Channels
The Guide to Pharmacology includes an online, open-access database version of the Guide to Receptors and Channels, previously available in HTML, PDF and printed formats.

Database links
The Guide to Pharmacology includes links to other relevant resources via target and ligand pages on both the concise and detailed view pages. Many of these resources maintain reciprocal links with the relevant IUPHAR database and Guide to Pharmacology pages.


 * HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee
 * Mouse Genome Informatics
 * Rat genome database
 * Ensembl
 * UniProt
 * Entrez
 * PubChem
 * ChemSpider
 * ChEMBL
 * ChEBI
 * KEGG
 * Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM)
 * DrugBank
 * Human Metabolome Database
 * Protein Data Bank

Future directions
Following funding from the Wellcome Trust, the Guide to Pharmacology is being expanded to include the biological targets of all prescription drugs and other likely targets of future small molecule drugs.