Computational study of zebrafish immune-targeted microarray data for prediction of preventive drug candidates

Viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) is a rhabdovirus reported to cause economic loss in fish farms. Because of the lack of adequate preventative treatments, the identification of multipath genes involved in VHS infection might be an alternative to explore the possibility of using drugs for the seasonal prevention of this fish disease. We propose labeling a category of drug molecules by further classification and interpretation of the Drug Gene Interaction Database using gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment scores. The study investigated disease networks of up-and down-regulated genes to find those with high interaction as substantial genes in pathways among the different disease networks. We prioritized these genes based on their relationship to those associated with VHS infection in the context of human protein-protein interaction networks and disease pathways. Among the 29 genes as potential drug targets, nine were selected as promising druggable genes (ERBB2, FGFR3, ITGA2B, MAP2K1, NGF, NTRK1, PDGFRA, SCN2B, and SERPINC1). PDGFRA is the most important druggable up-and down-regulated gene and is considered an important gene in the IMATINIB pathway. This study findings indicate a promising approach for drug target prediction for VHS treatment, which might be useful for disease therapeutics.