Exploring Drug Repurposing Opportunities for Schizophrenia: A Network Medicine Approach

María Marín Tercero, Lucía Prieto Santamaría, Alejandro Rodríguez González

Abstract: The discovery of new drugs poses significant challenges due to the time and cost involved in the traditional drug development process. Drug repurposing (DR) offers a promising strategy by repurposing already approved drugs for new therapeutic purposes beyond their original indications. Among computational methodologies employed in DR, network medicine stands out for integrating network science and systems biology to elucidate complex biomedical relationships. The application of this discipline in the processing of heterogeneous biomedical data enhances the understanding of diseases through complex network structures. This study explores the implementation of network medicine pipelines to formulate DR hypotheses for schizophrenia. By the characterization of disease modules within the interactome and the assessment of disease -drug proximity, potential candidate drugs for repurposing were identified. Integrating data on differential gene expression further refined the selection process. Fourteen drugs emerged as candidates for schizophrenia treatment, notably including antidepressants, antineoplastics, and anti-inflammatory agents. Overall, this investigation underscores the potential of network medicine in accelerating the discovery of treatments by providing novel insights into repurposing existing drugs for new therapeutic indications, holding remarkable promise in the field of neurological diseases.