Multitarget

Multitarget is a concept in science and engineering describing an approach, strategy, or agent designed to affect more than one target or objective simultaneously. In a biomedical setting, multitarget often refers to polypharmacology, where a single drug modulates multiple biological targets within a network of interacting pathways, rather than a single receptor or enzyme. The term emphasizes network-level effects and the interdependence of pathways involved in disease biology.

In pharmacology, multitarget strategies arise from the recognition that many diseases are multifactorial and involve redundant or compensatory circuits. Benefits can include synergistic efficacy, reduced likelihood of resistance, and better coping with heterogeneity among patients. Common methods include network pharmacology to map target connections, phenotypic screening to identify compounds with desirable system-level effects, and rational design of multi-target ligands or combination therapies. Challenges include off-target toxicity, pharmacokinetic clashes, and more complex regulatory assessment due to multifaceted mechanisms.

Outside pharmacology, multitarget appears in fields such as computer vision and radar that track multiple objects, or in control and optimization problems that govern several simultaneous goals. In these contexts, multitarget methods address data association, sensor fusion, and resource allocation under uncertainty, often at higher computational cost but with improved robustness in dynamic environments.

Historically linked to systems biology and drug discovery, the multitarget concept reflects a shift from single-target precision to network-aware strategies. Evaluation typically relies on target coverage, system-level response, safety margins, and patient or user outcomes, rather than single-target potency alone.