A systematic review on revolutionizing veterinary drug discovery: harnessing omics data to combat complex diseases in domestic animals
摘要
Currently, domestic animals are experiencing a range of severe diseases, leading to substantial economic losses for farmers. These diseases can be attributed to pathogen exposure or external environmental factors. Nowadays, preventive drug(s) are available but sometimes it fails to provide adequate and long-lasting protection, possibly due to incorrect selection of target molecule and mutation. Therefore, it is crucial to identify appropriate targets to develop effective and safe drugs in time. Target identification for human diseases is well established, but research in this aspect for domestic animals has been relatively limited. However, advancements in next-generation sequencing technologies and integrative multi-omics approaches have transformed veterinary research. The next-generation sequencing data, including whole-genome resequencing, transcriptomic and genotyping data, are being extensively generated and are now publicly available. These datasets provide valuable opportunities to identify potential target genes by identifying Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs), differentially expressed and disease-associated genes, as well as hub-genes that can be targeted for drug design. This review highlights tools and techniques that can be used to identify disease-causing target genes or proteins from omics data, emphasizing their applications in the discovery of novel veterinary drugs to cure various complex and challenging diseases.