Project details

A systemic computational analysis of pharmacological options in neuroinflammatory-induced Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in children: a potential for drugs repositioning

Research overview

A key research area that has recently emerged is the role of neuroinflammation in ASD. Neuroinflammation involves the activation of the brain's immune response, which can alter neural development and function. Studies show abnormal microglial activation and elevated cytokine levels in individuals with ASD, suggesting that neuroinflammation may contribute to the dysregulation of neural circuits associated with ASD. Understanding these mechanisms could open new avenues for therapeutic interventions targeting neuroinflammation, potentially improving the quality of life for individuals with ASD.

Study significance

Provide a comprehensive overview of the role of neuroinflammation in ASD and identify the biological pathways and targets associated with the compounds in treatments, exploring potential pharmacological and nutritional strategies, including drug repositioning.

Methodology

Category Details
Literature search
  • PubMed
  • Google scholar
  • Embase
  • Web of science
Data extraction from public databases
  • DrugBank
  • PubChem
Data analysis techniques
  • Web scraping
  • Knowledge graphs

Goals

Map the various biological pathways and targets associated with the compounds in treatments to their reported effects, enabling the identification of drugs that act on those same pathways and targets, regardless of their specificity to ASD, thus exploring the potential for drug repositioning.

Dashboard

This dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of ASD and the potential role of neuroinflammation, including:

  • Overview of the disease
  • Thematic analysis and identification of main pathways based on 13 research articles
  • Explanation of this project
  • Database informations overview
  • Acess to tables containing informations about the selected articles, and treatements
  • Knowledge graphs : from reported effects and treatements, their biological pathways and targets to potentially new therapeutic options
  • Access to information about shared genomic targets for compounds and treatments and their visualization
  • Access to information about shared proteomic targets for compounds and treatments and their visualization