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Data Pooling Could Repurpose Old Drugs, Say Scientists
- Publisher：
- Publication：2011/8/19
Scientists believe they could unlock many new uses for old medicines through matching up two online computer programmes, one that catalogues gene activity and another that monitors drug effects.
The research by Stanford University scientists published in Science Translational Medicine proved that by searching through a National Institute of Health database, which catalogues the results of genomic studies, symptoms of diseases could be matched with the effects of drugs, yielding 1,000 potential new treatments.
For example scientists found that GSK's Tagamet, a nonprescription ulcer medication could be used to treat lung cancer.
The same process, which searches for drugs that have an opposite effect on gene activity linked to a particular disease also showed that and Johnson & Johnson's Topamax, an anti-seizure medicine sold as generic topiramate, could treat a type of bowel disorder.