Frontiers in Immunology (Feb 2024)

Drug-target identification in COVID-19 disease mechanisms using computational systems biology approaches

  • Anna Niarakis,
  • Anna Niarakis,
  • Marek Ostaszewski,
  • Alexander Mazein,
  • Inna Kuperstein,
  • Inna Kuperstein,
  • Inna Kuperstein,
  • Martina Kutmon,
  • Marc E. Gillespie,
  • Marc E. Gillespie,
  • Akira Funahashi,
  • Marcio Luis Acencio,
  • Ahmed Hemedan,
  • Michael Aichem,
  • Karsten Klein,
  • Tobias Czauderna,
  • Felicia Burtscher,
  • Takahiro G. Yamada,
  • Yusuke Hiki,
  • Noriko F. Hiroi,
  • Noriko F. Hiroi,
  • Finterly Hu,
  • Finterly Hu,
  • Nhung Pham,
  • Nhung Pham,
  • Friederike Ehrhart,
  • Egon L. Willighagen,
  • Alberto Valdeolivas,
  • Aurelien Dugourd,
  • Francesco Messina,
  • Marina Esteban-Medina,
  • Marina Esteban-Medina,
  • Maria Peña-Chilet,
  • Maria Peña-Chilet,
  • Maria Peña-Chilet,
  • Kinza Rian,
  • Sylvain Soliman,
  • Sara Sadat Aghamiri,
  • Bhanwar Lal Puniya,
  • Aurélien Naldi,
  • Tomáš Helikar,
  • Vidisha Singh,
  • Marco Fariñas Fernández,
  • Viviam Bermudez,
  • Eirini Tsirvouli,
  • Arnau Montagud,
  • Vincent Noël,
  • Vincent Noël,
  • Vincent Noël,
  • Miguel Ponce-de-Leon,
  • Dieter Maier,
  • Angela Bauch,
  • Benjamin M. Gyori,
  • John A. Bachman,
  • Augustin Luna,
  • Augustin Luna,
  • Janet Piñero,
  • Janet Piñero,
  • Laura I. Furlong,
  • Laura I. Furlong,
  • Irina Balaur,
  • Adrien Rougny,
  • Adrien Rougny,
  • Yohan Jarosz,
  • Rupert W. Overall,
  • Robert Phair,
  • Livia Perfetto,
  • Lisa Matthews,
  • Devasahayam Arokia Balaya Rex,
  • Marija Orlic-Milacic,
  • Luis Cristobal Monraz Gomez,
  • Luis Cristobal Monraz Gomez,
  • Luis Cristobal Monraz Gomez,
  • Bertrand De Meulder,
  • Jean Marie Ravel,
  • Jean Marie Ravel,
  • Jean Marie Ravel,
  • Bijay Jassal,
  • Venkata Satagopam,
  • Venkata Satagopam,
  • Guanming Wu,
  • Martin Golebiewski,
  • Piotr Gawron,
  • Laurence Calzone,
  • Laurence Calzone,
  • Laurence Calzone,
  • Jacques S. Beckmann,
  • Chris T. Evelo,
  • Peter D’Eustachio,
  • Falk Schreiber,
  • Falk Schreiber,
  • Julio Saez-Rodriguez,
  • Joaquin Dopazo,
  • Joaquin Dopazo,
  • Joaquin Dopazo,
  • Joaquin Dopazo,
  • Martin Kuiper,
  • Alfonso Valencia,
  • Alfonso Valencia,
  • Olaf Wolkenhauer,
  • Olaf Wolkenhauer,
  • Hiroaki Kitano,
  • Emmanuel Barillot,
  • Emmanuel Barillot,
  • Emmanuel Barillot,
  • Charles Auffray,
  • Rudi Balling,
  • Reinhard Schneider,
  • the COVID-19 Disease Map Community

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1282859
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14

Abstract

Read online

IntroductionThe COVID-19 Disease Map project is a large-scale community effort uniting 277 scientists from 130 Institutions around the globe. We use high-quality, mechanistic content describing SARS-CoV-2-host interactions and develop interoperable bioinformatic pipelines for novel target identification and drug repurposing. MethodsExtensive community work allowed an impressive step forward in building interfaces between Systems Biology tools and platforms. Our framework can link biomolecules from omics data analysis and computational modelling to dysregulated pathways in a cell-, tissue- or patient-specific manner. Drug repurposing using text mining and AI-assisted analysis identified potential drugs, chemicals and microRNAs that could target the identified key factors.ResultsResults revealed drugs already tested for anti-COVID-19 efficacy, providing a mechanistic context for their mode of action, and drugs already in clinical trials for treating other diseases, never tested against COVID-19. DiscussionThe key advance is that the proposed framework is versatile and expandable, offering a significant upgrade in the arsenal for virus-host interactions and other complex pathologies.

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