I HealthBeat August 18, 011
A computer program that analyzes drug data and genetic information could help discover new uses for medicines already on the market, according to two new studies published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, United Press International reports.
Methodology
For the NIH-funded research, Stanford University scientists extracted data from NIH's Gene Expression Omnibus, a public database containing findings from thousands of genomic studies conducted throughout the world.
Researchers focused on 100 diseases and 164 drugs. They analyzed thousands of possible drug-disease combinations to identify which medications and medical conditions had gene expression patterns that could cancel each other out. Such matches indicate that the drug potentially could mitigate the effects of the disease (United Press International, 8/17).
Research Findings
Researchers identified possible drug-disease matches for 53 of the 100 diseases analyzed (Renick, Bloomberg, 8/17).
For example, they found that an epilepsy treatment potentially could treat inflammatory bowel disease and that an ulcer drug might be an effective lung cancer medication (Dockser Marcus, Wall Street Journal, 8/18).
Possible Implications
Researchers noted that re-purposing existing medications to treat different diseases could reduce some of the costs and requirements involved in the drug development process. They noted that it takes an average of 15 years and about $1 billion to bring a single new drug to market (Bloomberg, 8/17).
In an accompanying commentary on the research, Yves Lussier -- a professor of medicine and engineering at the University of Illinois in Chicago -- wrote that the findings should not prompt physicians to prescribe an ulcer drug to treat lung cancer. However, he added that the findings are "impressive enough to be improved upon and studied further."
Lussier also noted that if the computer program is effective at detecting possible off-label uses for existing drugs, it "opens the door to very low-cost, individualized personal therapies" (Wall Street Journal, 8/18).
Read more: http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2011/8/18/computer-analysis-could-find-new-uses-for-existing-drugs.aspx#ixzz1VTsrgrjJ
