DeCure's autonomous Rare AI scientist is researching a drug-repurposing hypothesis for silicosis — screening already-approved drugs against its 2-gene Open Targets disease module to publish open-access research. Research is fast; the path to publication is funded in milestone stages.
Disease moduleSilicosis maps to a 2-gene Open Targets module — the target space DeCure's AI scientist screens approved drugs against.
DeCure.ai methodSignature reversal (LINCS) plus network proximity (STRING) rank already-approved drugs likely to perturb this module — the same engine that produces DeCure.ai's repurposing hypotheses.
Repurposing thesisScreening approved medicines against this disease module, then publishing the evidence for the strongest candidate. Known pharmacology and human exposure data make the first question sharper — they do not establish safety or efficacy in a new indication.
Research record
01
ResearchComing soon
Candidate research + dossier — target rationale, drug-repurposing thesis and evidence pack.proof: Published dossier + on-chain hash
02
ValidationComing soon
In-vitro biological validation at a contract research org (CRO).proof: CRO contract + in-vitro report
03
Peer review & paperComing soon
Peer-reviewed paper published open-access (preprint + journal).proof: DOI + open-access link + on-chain hash
Current lead
No approved-drug candidate for silicosis is corroborated in the literature DeepSearch retrieved. Some conditions are managed with non-pharmacological care — a device, surgery or physical therapy — rather than a medicine; that may be the case here, or the literature we found may simply be too sparse yet to support a drug-repurposing angle.
Molecular view
tumor necrosis factor (TNF) — TNF is one of the genes genetically linked to this disease in Open Targets — shown as context, not as a drug target we're pursuing: no approved-drug candidate for this disease is yet corroborated in the literature we found.
Loading structure…
helix sheet apo structuredrag to rotate · scroll to zoom
RCSB Protein Data Bank · entry 5YOY · 2.727 Å · ligand none (apo structure). Experimental structure, not a prediction.
Evidence
Retrieved by DeepSearch across 234,678,978 indexed works and resolved on OpenAlex — ranked by citations, including the results that did not work.
Journal of Thoracic Disease · 2016 · 19 citations · open access
Proteomic profiling change during the early development of silicosis disease
AbstractBACKGROUND: Silicosis is one of several severe occupational diseases for which effective diagnostic tools during early development are currently unavailable. In this study we focused on proteomic profiling during the early stages of silicosis to investigate the pathophysiology and identify the proteins involved. METHODS: Two-dimensional (2D) gel electrophoresis and MALDI-TOF-MS were used to assess the proteomic differences between healthy individuals (HI), dust-exposed workers without silicosis (DEW) and silicosis patients (SP). Proteins abundances that differed by a factor of two-fold or greater were subjected to more detailed analysis, and enzyme linked to immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was employed to correlate with protein expression data. RESULTS: Compared with HI, 42 proteins were more abundant and 8 were less abundant in DEW, and these were also differentially accumulated in SP. Closer inspection revealed that serine protease granzyme A, alpha-1-B-glycoprotein (A1BG) and the T4 surface glycoprotein precursor (TSGP) were among the up-regulated proteins in DEW and SP. Significant changes in serine proteases, glycoproteins and proto-oncogenes may be associated with the response to cytotoxicity and infectious pathogens by activation of T cells, positive regulation of extracellular matrix structural constituents and immune response, and fibroblast proliferation. Up-regulation of cytokines included TNFs, interferon beta precursor, interleukin 6, atypical chemokine receptor 2, TNFR13BV, and mutant IL-17F may be involved in the increased and persistent immune response and fibrosis that occurred during silicosis development. CONCLUSIONS: Granzymes, glycoproteins, cytokines and immune factors were dramatically involved in the immune response, metabolism, signal regulation and fibrosis during the early development of silicosis. Proteomic profiling has expanded our understanding of the pathogenesis of silicosis, and identified a number of targets that may be potential biomarkers for early diagnosis of this debilitating disease.
Occupational Medicine · 2023 · 0 citations · open access
Silicosis
AbstractI was pleased to see the emphasis on silicosis in your recent issue, but sad that the lessons my generation has learned over the past six decades have had so little impact worldwide on prevention. These lessons are: Silicosis presents a variety of radiological appearances, depending on the intensity and duration of exposure and the mineral content of the dust. There is only one useful test for surveillance—chest radiography. Symptoms and pulmonary impairment only come late in the evolution of the disease. In this context, ‘late’ does not mean duration of exposure, since very heavy exposure to freshly generated silica can cause death within a year. The International Labour Office (ILO) classification of radiographs was not intended for diagnosis but for epidemiological purposes, to reduce the inevitable variation between x-ray readers. Rather, it allows description of the changes seen in relation to standard ‘normal’ films. Diagnosis in individuals depends also on taking account of clinical factors, notably exposure to, and type of, dust. The ILO scheme depends on trained readers and good radiographs. It is better not to use ‘experts’ who are not familiar with the whole system, including its methodology. In terms of radiological diagnosis, the more sensitive the test, the greater the risk of false-positive diagnoses (from smoking- and age-related fibrotic change) doing irreparable harm to workers’ careers. Thus, the finding of a possibly abnormal film should lead first to examination of the workplace. Early signs on the film may well be insignificant clinically but could lead to finding a poorly regulated workplace. Most patients with newly diagnosed silicosis have had no training in personal protection and few of their employers are aware of the risks they are subjecting their workers to. In the UK few if any undergo radiological surveillance and every generation of chest physician rediscovers these lessons. Meanwhile, young people find themselves in a queue for lung transplantation and an early grave. The management of someone with silicosis depends on a complete clinical and workplace assessment and should not be based purely on radiological appearances. Age and dust concentrations are critical to the decision. I write with feeling, having failed over the last five decades to get these messages through to the UK Health and Safety Executive, despite my contributions to the extensive literature on the subject.
Disease module: DeepOracle (Open Targets). Structures: RDKit from PubChem SMILES. Literature: retrieved by DeepSearch across 234,678,978 indexed works (targeted per-candidate search), resolved on OpenAlex.
DeCure is a research and publication project, not medical advice and not a treatment. "DeCure for X" describes a research goal, not a claim that a cure exists. Backing a cure is a contribution to fund the research — it is not an investment, and confers no yield, royalty, equity or IP ownership. Papers are published open-access by the DeCure.ai DAO.
