Blog Archives

Database Release 2025.4

Version 2025.4 of the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to Pharmacology database was released on 10th December 2025, our fourth and final release of the year. This blog post gives details of the key content updates and website changes. GtoPdb now contains: 3,118

Posted in Chemical curation, Database updates, Technical

Database Release 2025.3

Version 2025.3 of the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to Pharmacology database was released on 10th September 2025, our second release of the year. This blog post gives details of the key content updates and website changes. GtoPdb now contains: 3,112 human targets,

Posted in Chemical curation, Database updates, Technical

Database Release 2025.2

Version 2025.2 of the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to Pharmacology database was released on 18th June 2025, our second release of the year. This blog post gives details of the key content updates and website changes. GtoPdb now contains: 3,103 human targets,

Posted in Chemical curation, Database updates, Technical

GtoPdb Database Report – April 2025 now available

Our latest database report provides an overview of progress and status of the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to PHARMACOLOGY (GtoPdb) for the period November 2024 to April 2025. Click to access GtoPdb_Database_Report_Apr_2025.pdf It can also be access at our Zenodo repository https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15342610

Posted in Chemical curation, Database updates, Technical

Database Release 2025.1

The latest release (version 2025.1) of the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to Pharmacology database has been made. Released on 2nd April 2025 this is the first release of the year. The following blog post gives details of the key content updates and

Posted in Chemical curation, Database updates, Technical

Database Release 2024.4

The latest release (version 2024.4) of the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to Pharmacology database has been made. Released on 4th December 2024 this is the fourth release of the year. The following blog post gives details of the key content updates and

Posted in Chemical curation, Database updates, Technical

Database Release 2024.3

The latest release (version 2024.3) of the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to Pharmacology database has been made. Released on 3rd October 2024 this is the third release of the year. The following blog post gives details of the key content updates and

Posted in Chemical curation, Database updates, Technical

Database Release 2024.2

The latest release (version 2024.2) of the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to Pharmacology database has been made. Released on 26th June 2024 this is the second release of the year. The following blog post gives details of the key content updates and

Posted in Chemical curation, Database updates, Technical

Database Release 2024.1

A new release, version 2024.1, has been made of the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to Pharmacology database. Released on 26th March 2024 this is the first release of the year. The following blog post gives details of the key content updates and

Posted in Chemical curation, Database updates, Technical

Database Release 2023.3

The latest release of the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to Pharmacology database was made on 29th November 2023. This database release is version 2023.3, and is the third release this year. The following blog post gives details of the key content updates

Posted in Chemical curation, Database updates, Technical

Database Release 2023.2

The latest release of the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to Pharmacology database was made on 7th August 2023. This database release is version 2023.2, and is the second release this year. The following blog post gives details of the key content updates

Posted in Chemical curation, Database updates, Technical

Database Release 2023.1

The latest release of the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to Pharmacology database was made on 26th April 2023. This database release is version 2023.1, and is the first release this year. The following blog post gives details of the key content updates

Posted in Chemical curation, Database updates, Technical

Exploiting the Guide to Pharmacology substance (SID) tags in PubChem

This post on SID tagging has been reproduced, with permission, from Dr. Chris Southan’s original post in his blog – Bio <-> Chem.  It is intended to be user-orientated, those interested in the technicalities are welcome to contact the Guide

Posted in Chemical curation, Technical, Tutorials and Guides

GtoPdb NAR database issue 2018: Journal to database connectivity and journal to GtoPdb links

The following blog post acts as supplementary data to the 2018 NAR Database Issue Journal to Database connectivity The citation provenance of all entity records and contextual comments selected by the curators and NC-IUPHAR members in GtoPdb is supported by

Posted in Chemical curation

GtoPdb NAR database issue 2018: PubChem Content

The following blog post acts as supplementary data to the 2018 NAR Database Issue GtoPdb PubChem Content The GtoPdb PubChem integration strategy has been previously outlined (1). Since 2015 we have made nine PubChem submissions for new releases of our

Posted in Chemical curation, Publications

A Pharmacologists’ Guide to Resolving Chemical Structures and their Protein Targets from the Literature

This is an introduction to resolving bioactive ligands and their protein targets from the literature. It includes their conversion to standardised molecular identifiers so these can be communicated  to the Guide to PHARMACOLOGY (GtoPdb) team. (n.b. identifying what is already

Posted in Chemical curation, Drug targets, Technical

Case studies in chemical curation III: complexes and component mixtures

The issue of specified mixtures that include pharmacologically active chemical structures is complex and curatorially challenging, as described by this presentation on the topic. This post will briefly cover our handing of salts. A substance in an approved drug preparation may

Posted in Chemical curation

Case study in chemical curation II: Racemates and how to represent them

Where the drug is a racemate, should we go ‘flat’? Example: ketoconazole Many drugs are racemates, as indicated by their INN document or FDA label. This presents us with a curatorial decision: should we represent both of the enantiomers as

Posted in Chemical curation

Will the real drugs please stand up? Case studies in chemical curation I

Our database now contains over 6500 ligands, spanning 7 chemical classes. An important part of our curation work is to ensure the chemical structures of these ligands are accurate through both careful curation of new ligands and the running of

Posted in Chemical curation