Computer Program can identify many Approved FDA drugs, that treat other diseases, that can also fight Cancers like Ovarian Cancer.

Potential Ovarian Cancer Therapy Identified by New Drug Discovery Computer Program

Researchers have developed a new computer program, known as DrugPredict, to find new therapeutics for unmet diseases, like ovarian cancer, among medications the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already approved for other indications. The program predicted and researchers later confirmed that the pain medicine Indocin (indomethacin) - alone or combined with chemotherapy drugs - killed patient-derived ovarian cancer cells.

 Me, "A computer program that can find many FDA approved drugs to treat other diseases in minutes Amazing. This can be a life saver for not just cancer patients but other disease suffering people as well."

From article, (“Traditional drug discovery process takes an average of 14 years and billions of dollars of investment for a lead anti-cancer drug to make the transition from lab to clinic,” the study’s first author, Dr. Anil Belur Nagaraj, said in a press release. “Drug repositioning significantly shortens the long lag-phase in drug discovery and also reduces the associated cost.”

The DrugPredict program cuts that phase by scanning a database of drugs of approved FDA therapies to treat specific conditions. It then matches the drug’s profile to other conditions against which it may also be effective.

The program incorporates what is known about a treatment — mechanisms of action, clinical efficacy and side effects — and matches it to targets of new diseases, such as ovarian cancer.

“For any given disease, DrugPredict simultaneously performs both a target-based and phenotypic screening of over half a million chemicals, all in just a few minutes,” said Dr. Rong Xu, the study’s co-lead author and associate professor of biomedical informatics at Case.

In the Oncogene study, DrugPredict generated a list of 6,996 chemicals that could potentially target ovarian cancer, at the top of which were 15 FDA-approved therapies. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were very high on the list, so researchers used laboratory experiments to confirm the computer program’s findings.)

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