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Updated: May 10, 2025

Drug Repurposing Hypothesis Generation Using the "RE:fine Drugs" System
Published on: December 11, 2016
Drug Repurposing for Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease by Analyzing Networks Among Drugs, Diseases, and Genes
Md Altaf-Ul-Amin1, Ahmad Kamal Nasution1, Rumman Mahfujul Islam1
1Computational Systems Biology Lab, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Nara 630-0101, Japan.
Background/Objectives:
Drug development for complex diseases such as NAFLD is often lengthy and expensive. Drug repurposing, the process of finding new therapeutic uses for existing drugs, presents a promising alternative to traditional approaches. This study aims to identify potential repurposed drugs for NAFLD by leveraging disease-disease relationships and drug-target data from the BioSNAP database.
Methods:
A bipartite network was constructed between drugs and their target genes, followed by the application of the BiClusO bi-clustering algorithm to identify high-density clusters. Clusters with significant associations with NAFLD risk genes were considered to predict potential drug candidates. Another set of candidates was determined based on disease similarity.
Results:
A novel ranking methodology was developed to evaluate and prioritize these candidates, supported by a comprehensive literature review of their effectiveness in NAFLD treatment.
Conclusions:
This research demonstrates the potential of drug repurposing to accelerate the development of therapies for NAFLD, offering valuable insights into novel treatment strategies for complex diseases.
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