Virtual screening of FDA-approved tyrosine kinase inhibitors against new fusion oncogenes.

1. Background:Tyrosine kinases play an essential role in signal transduction pathways that regulate cell division, survival, and differentiation. In several cancers, chromosomal translocations create fusion oncogenes that lead to constitutive activation of these kinases. While targeted therapies against canonical fusions (like BCR-ABL in CML) have been revolutionary, newer fusion oncogenes continue to be discovered through next-generation sequencing techniques. However, the drug discovery process for these new targets is often lengthy and resource-intensive.

2. Rationale & Importance:Many FDA-approved TKIs already possess broad-spectrum activity or off-target effects. Repurposing these drugs through in silico screening approaches can dramatically cut down the time and cost required to develop targeted therapies for cancers harboring novel fusion genes. This virtual screening strategy allows for rapid identification of candidate inhibitors, which can then be validated in vitro or in vivo.

3. Objectives:

• To compile a curated list of newly identified fusion oncogenes from cancer genome databases (e.g.,…