Already approved for this disease in at least one country, according to the database. Nothing here says how well any of them works.
Talk to your doctor before changing any medicine.
The database lists no medicine approved for this disease.
Already being studied for this disease
Approved for another disease and now being tested for this one. A separate research category, not a prediction of effectiveness.
Approved for another disease, with no recorded link to this one. Connections worth reading about, never treatments.
Show only the medicines for one protein. Tap again to show all.
No new clues found for this disease.
There may not be enough information in the available research records yet. You can try another disease or check back when new data is available. This does not mean a treatment exists or does not exist.
Left-out counts
Counts only. No medicine names are displayed here.
0Not approved anywhere
0Unclear link
How to use Moonlight
How to read what Moonlight finds.
Moonlight does one thing. You give it a disease, and it shows which medicines act on the proteins linked to that disease. This page explains each part of what you see, and what it does not mean.
A medicine made for one disease may act on a protein linked to another.
Medicinealready approved and used by doctors
→
Proteina tiny machine in the body that the medicine turns up or down
→
Diseaselinked to that protein in the research record
Moonlight follows this path through open research data and shows you every step. It finds connections worth reading about. Scientists and doctors decide what they mean.
Three steps
A search takes a few seconds.
1
Type a disease
Use the name a doctor would write. If Moonlight is not sure, it asks “Did you mean?” and waits for you.
2
Pick the one you mean
Many diseases have several types. Moonlight lists them and never chooses for you.
3
Open a tab
The medicines are sorted into three tabs. Tap one to see its list.
The three tabs
Every medicine Moonlight shows is approved for at least one disease. The tabs tell you how it relates to the disease you searched.
ApprovedIn trialsNew clues
Approved
Already approved for this disease in at least one country, according to the database. Listed A to Z.
Look here for a medicine you already know.
In trials
Approved for another disease and now being tested for this one. Being tested is not a prediction that it works.
Each card shows the trial phase.
New clues
Approved for another disease, with no recorded link to this one. Ordered by how strongly the proteins are linked.
First on the list does not mean best.
How to read a card
This is a real clue from the search for pulmonary arterial hypertension. The gold letters match the key underneath.
6
Doxapram A
Forms: Doxapram, Doxapram Hydrochloride
8 reports B
Research pathway C
Doxapram→KCNK3→Pulmonary arterial hypertension
KCNK3DownD79 / 100 pointsE
The data does not say which direction this disease needs.
Plain-language explanation F
Doxapram is a medicine. Doctors already use it for something else. It comes in more than one form. Doxapram grabs a protein called KCNK3. A protein is a tiny machine in your body. Doxapram turns KCNK3 down, like a volume knob.
GBut there is a catch. Nobody knows from our information if the disease needs this protein turned up or down. So this is a clue to read about. It is not a treatment. Do not try it.
Source recordH
A
The medicine and its forms
A medicine and its tablet forms are shown as one item. The number beside the name is its place in the list.
B
Reports
How many clinical reports the database holds for this medicine. More reports means more has been written about it. It does not mean a better clue.
C
The path
Medicine, then protein, then disease. Every clue has all three steps. An approved medicine can be shown without a path, and its card says why.
D
Up, down or unknown
What the medicine does to the protein, like a volume knob. On this same list, other medicines turn KCNK3 up. All of them are clues, because the data does not say which way helps. “Unknown” means the data does not say which way, so Moonlight does not guess. “Mixed” means it does both.
E
Points out of 100
How strongly research links this protein to the disease. The points belong to the protein. They are not a grade for the medicine.
F
The explanation
The facts about this clue, rewritten in plain words. It is checked, so it adds no medicine, protein or number of its own.
G
The catch
On every clue and every trial card. The data does not say whether the disease needs the protein turned up or down, so a clue can point the wrong way. Approved cards do not have it.
H
Source record
A link to the public record behind the card, so you can check it yourself.
What Moonlight cannot tell you
Knowing these makes the rest more useful.
Whether a clue would help or harm.That takes trials in people.
Which direction the disease needs.A medicine that turns a protein the wrong way could make things worse.
Anything beyond the 25 most-linked proteins.Moonlight stops there for each disease.
Treatments that do not act on a protein.A moisturiser, a diet or surgery will never appear.
What is approved where you live.The database records approval in at least one country.
That the record is complete or current.Public databases have gaps and mistakes, and they change.
Good ways to use it
Moonlight is a place to start reading.
Use it to
learn which proteins are linked to a disease
find the medicines already approved or in trials
open the source record and read further
write down questions to take to your doctor
Do not use it to
start, stop or change any medicine
judge the medicine you take by its points
decide that a clue will work
look for where to get a medicine
Where the facts come from
Every fact has a public source.
The facts are from the Open Targets Platform. It is a free, open research database that brings together public sources such as ChEMBL for medicines, ClinicalTrials.gov for trials, Europe PMC for published research, and others.
The order is decided by plain rules. The ranking rule is printed above the list of new clues. No AI ranks or chooses anything.
The plain-language explanation is written by Gemini. It is given only the facts on the card, and its answer is checked against them. If Gemini is busy, Moonlight writes the explanation from its own template.
Research pathway
This medicine does not act on one of the 25 proteins most linked to this disease, so no path is shown.
The data does not say which direction this disease needs.