Integrated Cancer Research Center Seminar

"Comprehensive Prediction of Drug-protein Interactions and Side Effects for the Human Proteome"

Jeffrey Skolnick, Ph.D.
Director, Center for the Study of Systems Biology
Mary and Maisie Gibson Chair & GRA Eminent Scholar in Computational Systems Biology
Director, Integrative BioSystems Institute
Professor, School of Biology
Georgia Tech

Identifying unexpected drug-protein interactions is crucial for drug repurposing. We develop a comprehensive proteome scale approach that predicts human protein targets and side effect of drugs. For drug-protein interaction prediction, FINDSITEcomb, whose average precision is ~30% and recall ~27%, is employed. For side effect prediction, a new method is developed with a precision of ~57% and a recall of ~24%. Our predictions show that drugs are quite promiscuous, with the average (median) number of human targets per drug  of 329 (38), while a given protein interacts with 57 drugs. The result implies that drug side effects are inevitable and existing drugs may be useful for repurposing, with only ~1,000 human proteins likely causing serious side effects. A killing index derived from serious side effects has a strong correlation with FDA approved drugs being withdrawn. Therefore, it provides a pre-filter for new drug development. The methodology is free to the academic community on the DR. PRODIS (DRugome, PROteome, and DISeasome) webserver. DR. PRODIS provides protein targets of drugs, drugs for a given protein target, associated diseases and side effects of drugs, as well as an interface for the virtual target screening of new compounds.  Successful applications of the methodology to treat Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, to identify novel antibiotic leads and promising anti-seizure drugs are described.