A new research paradigm in modernization of traditional Chinese medicine: single cell pharmacology / 药学学报

ABSTRACT

Single cell "omics" technology enables the capture of genome, transcriptome, proteome and other omics information in a high-throughput and unbiased manner at single-cell resolution, allowing the characterization of the functional state of individual cells to reveal their heterogeneity and differential responses to drug treatment. This technology has wide application in pharmacological research, facilitating drug screening, efficacy evaluation, and mechanistic studies. We envision that, in the field of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), single cell omics technology can be applied in the identification of active ingredients and drug targets, and elucidation of drug mechanism of action. In this article, we briefly introduce the single cell omics technology - particularly single cell transcriptome sequencing, and review its application in the field of modern drug research. Based on that, we propose the concept of "single cell pharmacology" and articulate how it can be applied to transform the pharmacological research of TCM and promote TCM modernization.