Investigation of the potential therapeutic mechanisms of drug candidates is an essential step in the process of new drug discovery.With the rapid development of systems biology,recent network analyses of proteins,drug...Investigation of the potential therapeutic mechanisms of drug candidates is an essential step in the process of new drug discovery.With the rapid development of systems biology,recent network analyses of proteins,drugs,and diseases have enabled great progress in delineating the molecule mechanisms of drug candidates.However,most analyses perform a direct association between gene/protein and disease levels without considering the intermediate biological pathways regulated by the drugs.Given that a protein performs its biological roles through pathways,we propose using a novel pathway-pathway network analysis to investigate the potential therapeutic functions of the drug candidates.Many studies have demonstrated that salvianolic acid B(SalB) of Salvia miltiorrhiza is an effective therapy for cardiovascular diseases(CVD).Using molecular docking methods to identify direct interacting targets of Sal B,we collected all Sal B-regulated proteins with supporting experimental evidence in PubMed abstracts.FDA-approved CVD drugs and their corresponding targets were also collected.From a traditional drug-protein network analysis,we found that Sal B could affect ACE and REN of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system to relax vessels and alleviate hypertension.Subsequent pathway-pathway network analysis was attempted to study the mechanisms of Sal B in treating CVD,and demonstrated that Sal B regulates immunity/inflammation,apoptosis,ion transport and basic metabolism processes in the treatment of CVD.Regulating the immune/inflammation process may be the major mechanism of Sal B.We believe that pathwaypathway network analysis is a novel method for studying the therapeutic mechanisms of herbal ingredients.展开更多
Finding new applications for existing pharmaceuticals,known as drug repositioning,is a validated strategy for resolving the problem of high expenditure but low productivity in drug discovery.Currently,the prevalent co...Finding new applications for existing pharmaceuticals,known as drug repositioning,is a validated strategy for resolving the problem of high expenditure but low productivity in drug discovery.Currently,the prevalent computational methods for drug repositioning are focused mainly on the similarity or relevance between known drugs based on their "features",including chemical structure,side effects,gene expression profile,and/or chemical-protein interactome.However,such drug-oriented methods may constrain the newly predicted functions to the pharmacological functional space of the existing drugs.Clinically,many drugs have been found to bind "off-target"(i.e.to receptors other than their primary targets),which can lead to undesirable effects.In this study,which integrates known drug target information,we propose a disease-oriented strategy for evaluating the relationship between drugs and disease based on their pathway profile.The basic hypothesis of this method is that drugs exerting a therapeutic effect may not only directly target the disease-related proteins but also modulate the pathways involved in the pathological process.Upon testing eight of the global best-selling drugs in 2010(each with more than three targets),the FDA(Food and Drug Administration,USA)-approved therapeutic function of each was included in the top 10 predicted indications.On average,60% of predicted results made using our method are proved by literature.This approach could be used to complement existing methods and may provide a new perspective in drug repositioning and side effect evaluation.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30900832)the Open Project Program Foundation of Key Laboratory of Liver and Kidney Diseases (Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine)+2 种基金the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-08-0399)the "Shu Guang" Project by Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and Shanghai Education Development Foundation (07SG22)the National Science and Technology Major Project of China (2012ZX10005001)
文摘Investigation of the potential therapeutic mechanisms of drug candidates is an essential step in the process of new drug discovery.With the rapid development of systems biology,recent network analyses of proteins,drugs,and diseases have enabled great progress in delineating the molecule mechanisms of drug candidates.However,most analyses perform a direct association between gene/protein and disease levels without considering the intermediate biological pathways regulated by the drugs.Given that a protein performs its biological roles through pathways,we propose using a novel pathway-pathway network analysis to investigate the potential therapeutic functions of the drug candidates.Many studies have demonstrated that salvianolic acid B(SalB) of Salvia miltiorrhiza is an effective therapy for cardiovascular diseases(CVD).Using molecular docking methods to identify direct interacting targets of Sal B,we collected all Sal B-regulated proteins with supporting experimental evidence in PubMed abstracts.FDA-approved CVD drugs and their corresponding targets were also collected.From a traditional drug-protein network analysis,we found that Sal B could affect ACE and REN of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system to relax vessels and alleviate hypertension.Subsequent pathway-pathway network analysis was attempted to study the mechanisms of Sal B in treating CVD,and demonstrated that Sal B regulates immunity/inflammation,apoptosis,ion transport and basic metabolism processes in the treatment of CVD.Regulating the immune/inflammation process may be the major mechanism of Sal B.We believe that pathwaypathway network analysis is a novel method for studying the therapeutic mechanisms of herbal ingredients.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30900832)Open Project Program Foundation of Key Laboratory of Liver and Kidney Diseases (Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine)+2 种基金Ministry of Education Pro-gram for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-08-0399)"Shu Guang" Project by Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and Shanghai Education Development Foundation (07SG22)grants from Ministry of Science and Technology China (2012ZX10005001)
文摘Finding new applications for existing pharmaceuticals,known as drug repositioning,is a validated strategy for resolving the problem of high expenditure but low productivity in drug discovery.Currently,the prevalent computational methods for drug repositioning are focused mainly on the similarity or relevance between known drugs based on their "features",including chemical structure,side effects,gene expression profile,and/or chemical-protein interactome.However,such drug-oriented methods may constrain the newly predicted functions to the pharmacological functional space of the existing drugs.Clinically,many drugs have been found to bind "off-target"(i.e.to receptors other than their primary targets),which can lead to undesirable effects.In this study,which integrates known drug target information,we propose a disease-oriented strategy for evaluating the relationship between drugs and disease based on their pathway profile.The basic hypothesis of this method is that drugs exerting a therapeutic effect may not only directly target the disease-related proteins but also modulate the pathways involved in the pathological process.Upon testing eight of the global best-selling drugs in 2010(each with more than three targets),the FDA(Food and Drug Administration,USA)-approved therapeutic function of each was included in the top 10 predicted indications.On average,60% of predicted results made using our method are proved by literature.This approach could be used to complement existing methods and may provide a new perspective in drug repositioning and side effect evaluation.
