– Dr., Faculty of Pharmacy, M.S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Background: Contact dermatitis is a common dermatosis and can have both allergic and non-allergic character. Many intrinsic and extrinsic factors (allergic and toxic substances, age, sex, ethnicity, genetic factors, comorbidities) influence the incidence of the disease. It is a skin inflammatory condition that occurs at the spot of contact with a low molecular weight substance or protein in an individual allergic to this substance. Pathogenesis is based on type IV immune reaction with the predominant role of specific lymphocytes Therapeutic options for the same are limited due to the involvement of many unknown factors leading to the disorder which poses a threat to the quality of lives of these patients. Drug repurposing proposes a new window of hope which could help make their lives better.
Objectives: To determine off-label therapeutic possibilities for Contact Eczema.
Methods: Geo-databases were used to obtain a list of genes and proteins that are involved in the development and expression of Contact Eczema. The common genes and proteins involved in various pathways were then obtained and checked for their interactions using STRING. The repurposing application was utilized to obtain possible drug targets for these genes, following which the drug targets and their structurally similar counterparts were analyzed through in-silico methods to screen out the drugs with the best docking scores.
Results: The genes and proteins that were found linked with Contact Eczema were FLG, S100A7, CCL17, S100A9, and MMP12. The drugs with the possibility of therapeutic repurposing, targeting these were found to be Tasquinimod, Roquinimex, Paquinimod, and Laquinimod.
Conclusions: The therapeutic options for CE are limited due to multifactorial etiology. Drug repurposing proposes a new array of hope in patients with CE. This novel computational analysis identified Tasquinimod, Roquinimex, Paquinimod, and Laquinimod as drugs that can be repurposed for CE.
