Fibrotic expression profile analysis reveals repurposed drugs with potential anti-fibrotic mode of action

PLoS One. 2021 Apr 7;16(4):e0249687. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0249687. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Fibrotic diseases cover a spectrum of systemic and organ-specific maladies that affect a large portion of the population, currently without cure. The shared characteristic these diseases feature is their uncontrollable fibrogenesis deemed responsible for the accumulated damage in the susceptible tissues. Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, an interstitial lung disease, is one of the most common and studied fibrotic diseases and still remains an active research target. In this study we highlight unique and common (i) genes, (ii) biological pathways and (iii) candidate repurposed drugs among 9 fibrotic diseases. We identify 7 biological pathways involved in all 9 fibrotic diseases as well as pathways unique to some of these diseases. Based on our Drug Repurposing results, we suggest captopril and ibuprofen that both appear to slow the progression of fibrotic diseases according to existing bibliography. We also recommend nafcillin and memantine, which haven't been studied against fibrosis yet, for further wet-lab experimentation. We also observe a group of cardiomyopathy-related pathways that are exclusively highlighted for Oral Submucous Fibrosis. We suggest digoxin to be tested against Oral Submucous Fibrosis, since we observe cardiomyopathy-related pathways implicated in Oral Submucous Fibrosis and there is bibliographic evidence that digoxin may potentially clear myocardial fibrosis. Finally, we establish that Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis shares several involved genes, biological pathways and candidate inhibiting-drugs with Dupuytren's Disease, IgG4-related Disease, Systemic Sclerosis and Cystic Fibrosis. We propose that treatments for these fibrotic diseases should be jointly pursued.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Drug Repositioning / methods
  • Fibrosis / drug therapy*
  • Fibrosis / genetics*
  • Humans
  • Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis / drug therapy
  • Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis / genetics
  • Lung Diseases, Interstitial / drug therapy
  • Lung Diseases, Interstitial / genetics
  • Pharmaceutical Preparations / administration & dosage*
  • Signal Transduction / genetics
  • Transcriptome / genetics*

Substances

  • Pharmaceutical Preparations

Grants and funding

Evangelos Karatzas is a PhD student in the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. His doctoral thesis is being funded by the IKY (State Scholarships Foundation) scholarship under the Action “Strengthening Human Resources, Education and Lifelong Learning”, 2014-2020, co- funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Greek State (MIS 5000432). Andrea Kakouri holds a PhD Student fellow position funded by the European Commission Research Executive Agency Grant BIORISE (No. 669026), under the Spreading Excellence, Widening Participation, Science with and for Society Framework. George M. Spyrou holds the Bioinformatics ERA Chair Position funded by the European Commission Research Executive Agency (REA) Grant BIORISE (Num. 669026), under the Spreading Excellence, Widening Participation, Science with and for Society Framework.