Asthma is a common and heterogeneous disease characterized by chronic airway
inflammation. Currently, the two main types of
asthma medicines are inhaled
corticosteroids and long-acting β2-adrenoceptor agonists (LABAs). In addition, biological drugs provide another therapeutic option, especially for patients with severe
asthma. However, these drugs were less effective in preventing severe
asthma exacerbation, and other drug options are still limited. Herein, we extracted
asthma-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from the genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and phenome-wide association studies (PheWAS) catalog and prioritized candidate genes through five functional annotations. Genes enriched in more than two categories were defined as "biological
asthma risk genes." Then, DrugBank was used to match target genes with FDA-approved medications and identify candidate drugs for
asthma. We discovered 139 biological
asthma risk genes and identified 64 drugs targeting 22 of these genes. Seven of them were approved for
asthma, including
reslizumab,
mepolizumab,
theophylline,
dyphylline,
aminophylline,
oxtriphylline, and
enprofylline. We also found 17 drugs with clinical or preclinical evidence in treating
asthma. In addition, eleven of the 40 candidate drugs were further identified as promising
asthma therapy. Noteworthy, IL6R is considered a target for
asthma drug repurposing based on its high target scores. Through in silico drug repurposing approach, we identified
sarilumab and
satralizumab as the most promising drug for
asthma treatment.