Knowledge Graph-Based Approaches to Drug Repurposing for COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic
has motivated researchers all over the world
in trying to find effective drugs and therapeutics for treating this
disease. To save time, much effort has focused on repurposing drugs
known for treating other diseases than COVID-19. To support these
drug repurposing efforts, we built the CAS Biomedical Knowledge Graph
and identified 1350 small molecules as potentially repurposable drugs
that target host proteins and disease processes involved in COVID-19.
A computer algorithm-driven drug-ranking method was developed to prioritize
those identified small molecules. The top 50 molecules were analyzed
according to their molecular functions and included 11 drugs in clinical
trials for treating COVID-19 and new candidates that may be of interest
for clinical investigation. The CAS Biomedical Knowledge Graph provides
researchers an opportunity to accelerate innovation and streamline
the investigative process not just for COVID-19 but also in many other
diseases.