What is Synapse?
Synapse is the latest platform to combine drug discovery and development sources with best-in-class AI technology to provide insight into early R&D innovation. The searching capabilities combined with Knowledge Graphs and Dashboards allow innovators to study relationships between entities and gain competitor insights.
With Synapse, PatSnap hopes to support innovators in their research phase and shorten the time it takes for the drug to go from an idea to an entity in the medicine cabinet.
Identify Drug Candidates for Drug Repurposing
In this example we present a workflow to identify drugs that can be potentially repurposed for treating COVID-19. Here we have selected the drug Baricitinib, as it is currently under clinical trial studies against COVID-19, owing to its mechanism of action as a JAK1 and JAK2 inhibitor.
Begin by first entering ‘COVID-19 (disease) AND Baricitinib (drug)’ as shown below and hit Enter.
On the results page, click ‘Enter KG’ (indicated by the red arrow), to view the Knowledge Graph (KG). More detail can be found on KG.
The KG will show the link between COVID-19 and Baricitinib, as illustrated by the two different-colored nodes.
Expand the drug, in this case, Baricitinib (red node) to view the different relationships with other entities: Sibling, Targets, Diseases & Organizations. Next, open the Targets (amber quadrant) to view the 2 Targets: JAK1 and JAK2, and the successive connections of the drug to the targets and COVID-19.
Subsequently, expand JAK1 (amber node), and open the 57 Drugs (red quadrant).
A panel with a list of drugs will appear (as shown below). Select the drugs of interest – in this example, 3 drugs (Temozolomide, Melphalan and Levoleucovorin) have been checked/selected. Click the ‘Confirm’ button at the bottom right-hand corner of the panel.
The 3 drugs will now appear in the KG with connections to the different targets (JAK1 and JAK2), and in some instances the disease (COVID-19), if the drug is undergoing clinical trials for that particular indication. Using the KG in this manner will help uncover possible drug repurposing opportunities.
The data in the KG can be further refined by: drug type, drug phase, drug status, sponsors and organizations, using the filtering option by clicking on the icon indicated (by the red arrow).