title: A computational method for drug repositioning using publicly available gene expression data.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The identification of new therapeutic uses of existing drugs, or drug repositioning, offers the possibility of faster drug development, reduced risk, lesser cost and shorter paths to approval. The advent of high throughput microarray technology has enabled comprehensive monitoring of transcriptional response associated with various disease states and drug treatments. This data can be used to characterize disease and drug effects and thereby give a measure of the association between a given drug and a disease. Several computational methods have been proposed in the literature that make use of publicly available transcriptional data to reposition drugs against diseases.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this work, we carry out a data mining process using publicly available gene expression data sets associated with a few diseases and drugs, to identify the existing drugs that can be used to treat genes causing lung cancer and breast cancer.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three strong candidates for repurposing have been identified- Letrozole and GDC-0941 against lung cancer, and Ribavirin against breast cancer. Letrozole and GDC-0941 are drugs currently used in breast cancer treatment and Ribavirin is used in the treatment of Hepatitis C.
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Shabana
authors.forename: K A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Abdul Nazeer
authors.forename: Meeta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pradhan
authors.forename: Mathew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Palakal
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D058492:Drug Repositioning / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D000077289:Letrozole; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics; D009570:Nitriles / Q000627:therapeutic use; D014230:Triazoles / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D009570:Nitriles; D014230:Triazoles; D000077289:Letrozole