Uncovering novel repositioning opportunities using the Open Targets platform

Drug Discov Today. 2017 Dec;22(12):1800-1807. doi: 10.1016/j.drudis.2017.09.007. Epub 2017 Sep 14.

Abstract

The recently developed Open Targets platform consolidates a wide range of comprehensive evidence associating known and potential drug targets with human diseases. We have harnessed the integrated data from this platform for novel drug repositioning opportunities. Our computational workflow systematically mines data from various evidence categories and presents potential repositioning opportunities for drugs that are marketed or being investigated in ongoing human clinical trials, based on evidence strength on target-disease pairing. We classified these novel target-disease opportunities in several ways: (i) number of independent counts of evidence; (ii) broad therapy area of origin; and (iii) repositioning within or across therapy areas. Finally, we elaborate on one example that was identified by this approach.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Computational Biology / methods*
  • Drug Repositioning*
  • Humans
  • Rare Diseases / drug therapy
  • Receptor, Melanocortin, Type 1 / metabolism
  • Vitiligo / drug therapy
  • Vitiligo / metabolism

Substances

  • Receptor, Melanocortin, Type 1