摘要In the past century,as medical research has become increasingly precise,it has become clear that the incidence and progression of many diseases involve multiple factors and pathologies; this is particularly true for the degenerative and metabolic diseases facing industrialized societies.At the same time,it becomes increasingly clear that single-target action drugs cannot effectively treat these diseases.Researchers are looking toward the chemical industry as well as traditional herbal medicines to find multi-target interventions.Thus,a new era in drug discovery has begun.Specifically,three approaches have proven effective in seeking multi-target drugs.These are:(1)designing drugs with multiple components;(2)discovering drugs through the study of synergistic compound-compound interactions in medicinal herbs or among chemical drugs and herbal components; and(3)developing drugs to tackle complex multi-component diseases.The authors conclude that there is an increasing need for multi-component remedies to treat the complex chronic diseases afflicting modem populations.Given this situation and the growing body of evidence that these new approaches are effective,multi-target intervention appears to have great potential for discovering,designing,and developing effective new drugs for today's diseases.