A novel drug repurposing approach for non-small cell lung cancer using deep learning

Bingrui Li

Abstract: Drug repurposing is an attractive and pragmatic strategy offering reduced risks and development time in the complicated process of drug discovery. In the past, drug repurposing has been largely accidental and serendipitous. The most successful examples so far have not involved a systematic approach. Nowadays, remarkable advances in drugs, diseases, and bioinformatic knowledge are offering great opportunities for designing novel drug repurposing approaches through comprehensive understanding of drug information. In this study, we introduced a novel drug repurposing approach based on transcriptomic data and chemical structures using deep learning. One strong candidate for repurposing was identified. Pimozide is an anti-dyskinesia agent used for the suppression of motor and phonic tics in patients with Tourette’s Disorder. However, our pipeline proposed it as a strong candidate for treating non-small cell lung cancer. The cytotoxicity of pimozide against $A549$ cell lines was validated.