Database Commons
Database Commons

a catalog of worldwide biological databases

Database Profile

EcoDrug PLUS

General information

URL: https://ecodrugplus.helsinki.fi/
Full name: an advanced database for drug target conservation analysis and environmental risk assessment
Description: EcoDrug PLUS (EcoDrug+) is a freely available and publicly accessible database, established to facilitate environmental risk assessment of pharmaceuticals and other bioactive substances, including veterinary medicines and pesticides. EcoDrug+ advancements on the original ECODrug database include a more extensive and intuitive graphical user interface for investigating the potential for chemicals to interact with protein targets based on their conservation with human drug, veterinary, and pesticide targets across 180 phylogenetically diverse wildlife taxa.
Year founded: 2025
Last update: 2025-11-03
Version: 1.0.0
Accessibility:
Accessible
Country/Region: Finland

Funding support

  • 875508
  • 320210
  • 351507
  • V509346-1

Contact information

University/Institution: University of Helsinki
Address: Viikinkaari 5, 00790 Helsinki
City: Helsinki
Province/State: Uusimaa
Country/Region: Finland
Contact name (PI/Team): Ashenafi Legehar
Contact email (PI/Helpdesk): ashenafi.legehar@helsinki.fi

Publications

41273090
EcoDrug PLUS: an advanced database for drug target conservation analysis and environmental risk assessment. [PMID: 41273090]
Legehar A, Monaghan S, Briand M, Niemelä A, Ghemtio L, Tanoli Z, Brown AR, Tyler CR, Xhaard H.

EcoDrug PLUS (EcoDrug+; https://ecodrugplus.helsinki.fi/) is a freely available and publicly accessible database, established to facilitate environmental risk assessment of pharmaceuticals and other bioactive substances, including veterinary medicines and pesticides. EcoDrug+ advancements on the original ECODrug database include a more extensive and intuitive graphical user interface for investigating the potential for chemicals to interact with protein targets based on their conservation with human drug, veterinary, and pesticide targets across 180 phylogenetically diverse wildlife taxa. EcoDrug+ integrates genomic and chemoinformatic data from open-access sources for ~7200 pharmaceuticals, 34 000 agrochemicals, 61 000 human metabolites, and 5800 other bioactive chemicals. Advanced search capabilities of EcoDrug+ include the ability to interrogate the database via text queries, chemical structure drawings, target protein sequence BLAST, and/or specified mechanisms of action. Chemical compound data are organized into clusters to facilitate the exploration of similar groups using interactive knowledge graphs. The integration of effects-based knowledge informs on appropriate endpoints and susceptible species for the testing of drugs (and other bioactive chemicals). Georeferenced measured environmental concentrations (for n = 266 chemicals) furthermore provide relevant exposure data for testing and environmental risk analysis.

Nucleic Acids Res. 2025:() | 0 Citations (from Europe PMC, 2025-12-06)
29140522
ECOdrug: a database connecting drugs and conservation of their targets across species. [PMID: 29140522]
Verbruggen B, Gunnarsson L, Kristiansson E, Österlund T, Owen SF, Snape JR, Tyler CR.

Pharmaceuticals are designed to interact with specific molecular targets in humans and these targets generally have orthologs in other species. This provides opportunities for the drug discovery community to use alternative model species for drug development. It also means, however, there is potential for mode of action related effects in non-target wildlife species as many pharmaceuticals reach the environment through patient use and manufacturing wastes. Acquiring insight in drug target ortholog predictions across species and taxonomic groups has proven difficult because of the lack of an optimal strategy and because necessary information is spread across multiple and diverse sources and platforms. We introduce a new research platform tool, ECOdrug, that reliably connects drugs to their protein targets across divergent species. It harmonizes ortholog predictions from multiple sources via a simple user interface underpinning critical applications for a wide range of studies in pharmacology, ecotoxicology and comparative evolutionary biology. ECOdrug can be used to identify species with drug targets and identify drugs that interact with those targets. As such, it can be applied to support intelligent targeted drug safety testing by ensuring appropriate and relevant species are selected in ecological risk assessments. ECOdrug is freely accessible and available at: http://www.ecodrug.org.

Nucleic Acids Res. 2018:46(D1) | 48 Citations (from Europe PMC, 2025-12-06)

Ranking

All databases:
1958/6895 (71.617%)
Phylogeny and homology:
88/302 (71.192%)
Pathway:
124/451 (72.727%)
Health and medicine:
491/1738 (71.807%)
Literature:
184/577 (68.284%)
Metadata:
188/719 (73.992%)
1958
Total Rank
47
Citations
6.714
z-index

Community reviews

Not Rated
Data quality & quantity:
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Record metadata

Created on: 2025-11-25
Curated by:
Dong Zou [2025-11-28]
Lina Ma [2025-11-27]
Ashenafi legehar [2025-11-25]