HORA suite (Human blOod Range vAlidator) consists of a Java application used to validate the metabolomic analysis of human blood against a database that stores the normal plasma and serum range concentrations of metabolites. The goal of HORA is to find the metabolites that are outside the normal range and to show those not present in the list provided by the user, for different thresholds of concentration. Moreover it supplies a graphical interface to manage the data. The software can also be used to compare different metabolomic techniques. HORA is open-source software and it can be accessed at http://www.paternostrolab.org. A separate file contains instructions for the installation and a brief tutorial.

Combination therapies are often needed for effective clinical outcomes in the management of complex diseases, but presently they are generally based on empirical clinical experience. Here we suggest a novel application of search algorithms -- originally developed for digital communication -- modified to optimize combinations of therapeutic interventions. In biological experiments measuring the restoration of the decline with age in heart function and exercise capacity in Drosophila melanogaster, we found that search algorithms correctly identified optimal combinations of four drugs using only one-third of the tests performed in a fully factorial search. In experiments identifying combinations of three doses of up to six drugs for selective killing of human cancer cells, search algorithms resulted in a highly significant enrichment of selective combinations compared with random searches. In simulations using a network model of cell death, we found that the search algorithms identified the optimal combinations of 6-9 interventions in 80-90% of tests, compared with 15-30% for an equivalent random search. These findings suggest that modified search algorithms from information theory have the potential to enhance the discovery of novel therapeutic drug combinations. This report also helps to frame a biomedical problem that will benefit from an interdisciplinary effort and suggests a general strategy for its solution.