Cited by 48Computational Drug Discovery MethodsGene expression and cancer classificationBioinformatics and Genomic Networks

OCTAD: an open workspace for virtually screening therapeutics targeting precise cancer patient groups using gene expression features

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Zeng, Billy, Glicksberg, Benjamin S., Newbury, Patrick, Chekalin, Evgeny, Xing, Jing, Liu, Ke, Wen, Anita, Chow, Caven +1 more·2021·Nature Protocols

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Abstract

As the field of precision medicine progresses, treatments for patients with cancer are starting to be tailored to their molecular as well as their clinical features. The emerging cancer subtypes defined by these molecular features require that dedicated resources be used to assist the discovery of drug candidates for preclinical evaluation. Voluminous gene expression profiles of patients with cancer have been accumulated in public databases, enabling the creation of cancer-specific expression signatures. Meanwhile, large-scale gene expression profiles of cellular responses to chemical compounds have also recently became available. By matching the cancer-specific expression signature to compound-induced gene expression profiles from large drug libraries, researchers can prioritize small molecules that present high potency to reverse expression of signature genes for further experimental testing of their efficacy. This approach has proven to be an efficient and cost-effective way to identify efficacious drug candidates. However, the success of this approach requires multiscale procedures, imposing considerable challenges to many labs. To address this, we developed Open Cancer TherApeutic Discovery (OCTAD; http://octad.org ): an open workspace for virtually screening compounds targeting precise groups of patients with cancer using gene expression features. Its database includes 19,127 patient tissue samples covering more than 50 cancer types and expression profiles for 12,442 distinct compounds. The program is used to perform deep-learning-based reference tissue selection, disease gene expression signature creation, drug reversal potency scoring and in silico validation. OCTAD is available as a web portal and a standalone R package to allow experimental and computational scientists to easily navigate the tool.

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  • A deep-learning based approach to identify the best reference control tissue relies much less on prior assumptions.

    “Additionally, a recent report has proposed using a deep-learning based approach to identify the best reference control tissue, an attractive strategy that relies much less on prior-assumptions74.”

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Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. [8]Chen B Computational discovery of niclosamide ethanolamine, a repurposed drug candidate that reduces growth of hepatocellular carcinoma cells in vitro and in mice by inhibiting cell division cycle 37 signaling. Gastroenterology 152, 2022– 2036 (2017). 28284560 PMC5447464
  2. [11]Chen B Reversal of cancer gene expression correlates with drug efficacy and reveals therapeutic targets. Nat. Commun 8, 16022 (2017). 28699633 PMC5510182
  3. [15]Zeng WZD, Glicksberg BS, Li Y & Chen B Selecting precise reference normal tissue samples for cancer research using a deep learning approach. BMC Med. Genomics 12, 21 (2019). 30704474 PMC6357350

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Authors
Zeng, B., Glicksberg, B. S., Newbury, P., Chekalin, E., Xing, J., Liu, K., Wen, A., Chow, C., & Chen, B.
Affiliations
  • University of California, San Francisco (US)
  • Michigan State University (US)
  • University of California, Davis (US)
Corresponding author
Chen, Bin
Venue
Nature Protocols
Published
2020-12-23
Volume
16
Issue
2
Pages
728-753
ISSN
  • 1750-2799 (ISSN-L)
  • 1754-2189
OpenAlex
W3115013592
Cited by
48
References
65
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 4
FWCI
4.72
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Protocols (publishedVersion)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (R21TR001743)
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (K01 ES028047)
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01GM134307)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computational Theory and Mathematics › Computational Drug Discovery Methods
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gene expression and cancer classification
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Bioinformatics and Genomic Networks
Keywords
precision oncology, virtual screening, gene expression signatures, tumor subtypes, deep learning, open source software, web portal, R package, drug candidate prioritization
MeSH terms
Computer Simulation, Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor, Humans, Neoplasms, Gene Expression, Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic, Gene Expression Profiling, Databases, Genetic, Biomarkers, Pharmacological, Early Detection of Cancer, Precision Medicine, Transcriptome

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