processes Review Drug Repurposing Using Biological Networks Francisco Javier Somolinos 1 , Carlos León 1,2,3,* and Sara Guerrero-Aspizua 1,2,3 1 Department of Bioengineering, Carlos III University, Leganés, 28911 Madrid, Spain;
[email protected] (F.J.S.);
[email protected] (S.G.-A.) 2 Network Research on Rare Diseases (CIBERER), U714, 28029 Madrid, Spain 3 Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering Group, Health Research Institute-Jimenez Diaz Foundation University Hospital (IIS-FJD), 28040 Madrid, Spain * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: Drug repositioning is a strategy to identify new uses for existing, approved, or research drugs that are outside the scope of its original medical indication. Drug repurposing is based on the fact that one drug can act on multiple targets or that two diseases can have molecular similarities, among others. Currently, thanks to the rapid advancement of high-performance technologies, a massive amount of biological and biomedical data is being generated. This allows the use of computational methods and models based on biological networks to develop new possibilities for drug repurposing. Therefore, here, we provide an in-depth review of the main applications of drug repositioning that have been carried out using biological network models. The goal of this review is to show the usefulness of these computational methods to predict associations and to find candidate drugs for repositioning in new indications of certain diseases. Keywords: drug repurposing; network models; metabolic networks; network analysis; drug interac- tions; drug targets Citation: Somolinos, F.J.; León, C.; Guerrero-Aspizua, S. Drug 1. Introduction Repurposing Using Biological Networks.