title: Inferring therapeutic targets from heterogeneous data: HKDC1 is a novel potential therapeutic target for cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The discovery of therapeutic targets is important for cancer treatment. Although dozens of targets have been used in cancer therapies, cancer remains a serious disease with a high mortality rate. Owing to the expansion of cancer-related data, we now have the opportunity to infer therapeutic targets using computational biology methods.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Here, we describe a method, termed anticancer activity enrichment analysis, used to determine genes that could be used as therapeutic targets. The results show that these genes have high likelihoods of being developed into clinical targets (>60%). Combined with gene expression data, we predicted 50 candidate targets for lung cancer, of which 19 of the top 20 genes are targeted by approved drugs or drugs used in clinical trials. A hexokinase family member, hexokinase domain-containing protein 1 (HKDC1), is the only one of the top 20 genes that has not been targeted by either an approved drug or one being used in clinical trials. Further investigations indicate that HKDC1 is a novel potential therapeutic target for lung cancer.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We developed a protocol to identify potential therapeutic targets from heterogeneous data. We suggest that HKDC1 is a novel potential therapeutic target for lung cancer.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  huangjf@mail.kiz.ac.cn
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese University of Hongkong Joint Research Center for Bio-resources and Human Disease Mechanisms, Kunming, Yunnan 650223, China.
authors.forename: Gong-Hua
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jing-Fei
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006593:Hexokinase / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; C472074:HK1 protein, human; D006593:Hexokinase