Combinational therapies - a new hope for Alzheimer’s disease ?
What is it about?
Human diseases are complex biological phenomena resulting from perturbations of numerous signaling pathways. The complex nature of human diseases explains frequently observed marginal or transitory efficacy of mono-therapeutic interventions. For this reason, combination therapy is being increasingly evaluated as a biologically plausible strategy for reversing disease state. This paper describes how this strategy can be applied for fast and robust combinational drug repurposing for Alzheimer’s disease.
Why is it important?
Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) provide a prominent opportunity for disclosing human-specific signaling pathways that are enriched in disease-associated genes and include targets for approved drugs thereby allowing rational drug repurposing. We elaborated a universal computational platform that enables robust identification and therapeutic targeting of such signaling pathways. The experimental results of a proof-of-concept study applied to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) demonstrated feasibility and efficacy of the proposed approach for rapid development of synergistic drug combinations for common human diseases.