Department of Microbiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Curr Opin Immunol. 2013 Oct;25(5):588-92. doi: 10.1016/j.coi.2013.08.004. Epub 2013 Sep 5.
The advent of publicly available databases containing system-wide phenotypic data of the host response to both drugs and pathogens, in conjunction with bioinformatics and computational methods now allows for in silico predictions of FDA-approved drugs as treatments against infection diseases. This systems biology approach captures the complexity of both the pathogen and drug host response in the form of expression patterns or molecular interaction networks without having to understand the underlying mechanisms of action. These drug repurposing techniques have been successful in identifying new drug candidates for several types of cancers and were recently used to identify potential therapeutics against influenza, the newly discovered Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus and several parasitic diseases. These new approaches have the potential to significantly reduce both the time and cost for infectious diseases drug discovery.
随着包含宿主对药物和病原体反应的系统范围表型数据的公开数据库的出现，结合生物信息学和计算方法，现在可以对 FDA 批准的药物进行计算机预测，将其作为抗感染疾病的治疗方法。这种系统生物学方法以表达模式或分子相互作用网络的形式捕获病原体和药物宿主反应的复杂性，而不必了解作用机制。这些药物再利用技术已成功鉴定出多种类型癌症的新药物候选物，并最近用于鉴定抗流感、新发现的中东呼吸综合征冠状病毒和几种寄生虫病的潜在疗法。这些新方法有可能大大缩短传染病药物发现的时间和成本。
