[Thoughts and exploration on studying pharmacological mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine using network biology approach].

The mechanism of synergetic effects of multi-components on multi-targets in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is one of the bottlenecks for TCM modernization and internationalization. Network biology approach was developed in recent years and provided an important and novel idea to study the pharmacological mechanism of TCM. This review introduced the mathematical basis of network biology, as well as the feasibility and research idea of using network biology to study the pharmacological mechanism of TCM. Network biology was expected to be further used for analyzing the pharmacological mechanism of TCM, guiding drug development of TCM, inheriting and carrying forward the fundamental principle of TCM.