ncRNA

The Clinical Trials Puzzle: How Network Effects Limit Drug Discovery

Abstract The depth of knowledge offered by post-genomic medicine has carried the promise of new drugs, and cures for multiple diseases. To explore the degree to which this capability has materialized, we extract meta-data from 356,403 clinical trials spanning four decades, aiming to offer mechanistic insights into the innovation practices in drug discovery. We find that convention dominates over innovation, as over 96% of the recorded trials focus on previously tested drug targets, and the tested drugs target only 12% of the human interactome.

Non-Coding RNAs Improve the Predictive Power of Network Medicine

Abstract Network Medicine has improved the mechanistic understanding of disease, offering quantitative insights into disease mechanisms, comorbidities, and novel diagnostic tools and therapeutic treatments. Yet, most network-based approaches rely on a comprehensive map of protein-protein interactions, ignoring interactions mediated by non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs). Here, we systematically combine experimentally confirmed binding interactions mediated by ncRNA with protein-protein interactions, constructing the first comprehensive network of all physical interactions in the human cell.