The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic requires maximum commitment and rapid and effective strategies on all fronts, including epidemiological, clinical, biological and pharmacological.
Researchers from the Institute for Applied Computation (Cnr-Iac) and the Institute of Translational Pharmacology (Cnr-Ift), just published in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, have used the knowledge available today on Covid-19 to design a strategy for the reuse of drugs already on the market (drug repurposing) for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.
Analyzing data acquired so far, such as the set of human proteins interacting with those of Sars-CoV-2 and other similar viruses and tissue-specific gene expression data, and using network medicine techniques, i.e. the application of network science for identification, the prevention and treatment of diseases, the network of human proteins reacting to viral invasion has been explored and analyzed through information propagation algorithms, and the results exploited to infer and prioritize candidate genes to become targets of drugs to be reused for the treatment of Covid-19.
The results of this study should be tested in vitro and in vivo for possible clinical application.
For information:
Paolo Tieri
CNR – Istituto per le applicazioni del calcolo “Mauro Picone”
paolo.tieri@cnr.it
See more:
Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology
