Using Entity Metrics to Understand Drug Repurposing.

Understanding the process of drug repurposing is critically significant for drug development. In this paper, we employ extracted bio-entities to detect the features of different phases in drug repurposing. We proposed a transparent and easy entitymetric indicator for bio-entities, i.e., Popularity Index, to quantify and visualize the dynamic changes in academic interests of bio-entities. By taking aspirin as an example, the results display specific profiles of drug repurposing and the evolution of bio-entities in the different phases of drug research, which would potentially be valuable for pharmaceutical companies and scholars to successfully discover and repurpose drugs.