Adverse Drug Reaction Classification System

Credits & Contact

Please feel free to contact Professor Zhiliang Ji with respect to any details pertaining to ADReCS.

  • Address:
  • School of life sciences, Xiamen Univesity Xiamen, Fujian 361102, P.R.China
  • Phone:
  • +86-592-2182897
  • Fax:
  • +86-592-2182897
  • Email:
  • appo@xmu.edu.cn (Prof ZL Ji)
  • Lab webpage:
  • http://www.bio-add.org/

Citing ADReCS

Mei-Chun Cai, Quan Xu, Yan-Jing Pan, Wen Pan, Nan Ji, Yin-Bo Li, Hai-Jing Jin, Ke Liu and Zhi-Liang Ji. (2015) ADReCS: an ontology database for aiding standardization and hierarchical classification of adverse drug reaction terms. Nucl. Acids Res. 43 (D1): D907-D913. doi: 10.1093/nar/gku1066. Epub 2014 Oct 31.

Qi-Xuan Yue, Ruo-Fan Ding, Wei-Hao Chen, Lv-Ying Wu, Ke Liu and Zhi-Liang Ji. (2024) Mining Real-World Big Data to Characterize Adverse Drug Reaction Quantitatively: Mixed Methods Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2024 May 3;26:e48572.

Standardization of ADR Terms

The ADR records are normally indicated in variety of conditions like physical findings, patient complaints, safety reports and laboratory results, which are often described in different strings. Therefore, it is hard to evaluate these medical terms straightforwardly before standardization. ADReCS adopted MedDRA and UMLS as major references for ADR term standardization and the detailed protocol of ADR standardization is downloadable.

About Quicksearch

Quick Search allows user to type partial or full keywords of ADR term, ADReCS ID, MedDRA code, MeSH ID, drug name, drug ID of BADD, ATC code, DrugBank ID, KEGG ID, PubChem ID, CAS RN or molecular formula to search database. An accurate or detailed keyworks will prompt the search and narrow down the hits. Keyword combination or wide characters like "*, +" are not supported.
Step 1: Select "For Drug" if you want to search drug, or select "For ADR" if you want to search ADR. Default value is "For ADR".
Step 2: Enter the keyword you want to search, eg. "Anxiety". You can choose "Fuzzy Search" or "Accurate Search" to extend the number of result or get the accurate result.
Step 3: Click the "QuickSearch" button to initiate search.
Step 4: Initiated search will lead you to the "Query Result" page, all corresponding result will be listed, and clicking on the certain ADR term will lead you to the information page.

About ADR Similarity Search

ADR-based drug similarity is assessed by calculating Tanimoto coefficient between drug-drug pairs by ADRs.
Step 1: Enter or upload a list of ADR IDs or ADR terms you want to search, separated by comma, semicolon, space or newline-delimited.
Step 2: Click the "Search" button to initiate search.
Step 3: The ADR terms and the top 20 most similar drugs will be listed and sorted by Tanimoto coefficient.

About Structure Similarity Search

Drug structure similarity is assessed by calculating Tanimoto coefficient between drug-drug pairs by fingerprints.
Step 1: Draw the structure or uploadan SDF or MOL file containing the structure you want to search.
Step 2: Click the "Search" button to initiate search.
Step 3: The top 20 most similar drugs will be listed and sorted by Tanimoto coefficient.

About ADR Frequency (FAERS)

ADR Frequency of per drug is assessed by adverse event reports information from the FAERS.

About ADR Severity Grade (FAERS)

There are five levels of ADR severity evaluated with enormous reports of adverse events from FAERS, including Mild, Moderate, Severe, Life-threatening or Death.

Five severity grades are shown in five colors vividly.

If you have more questions about this, please refer to the following documents:
Qi-Xuan Yue, Ruo-Fan Ding, Wei-Hao Chen, Lv-Ying Wu, Ke Liu and Zhi-Liang Ji. (2024) Mining Real-World Big Data to Characterize Adverse Drug Reaction Quantitatively: Mixed Methods Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2024 May 3;26:e48572.

About ADR Severity Grade (CTCAE)

ADRs were pre-assigned into five severity categories of mild, moderate, severe, life threatening or death according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) v5.0. The CTCAE is a predominant system for describing the severity of adverse events (AEs) commonly encountered in clinical trials.
Five severity grades are shown in five colors vividly.