KEGG Disease-Drug-Variant Research

Systematic exploration of disease-drug-variant relationships using KEGG's curated databases.

Reasoning Strategy

KEGG maps diseases to pathways and drugs to targets, but the real value is in the connections — which pathways link a disease gene to a drug target? This is a network question, not a simple lookup. A gene appearing in a KEGG disease entry has been editorially reviewed as mechanistically relevant; a drug entry with a confirmed target is more reliable than one inferred from pathway co-membership. When using KEGG for drug repurposing, always ask: is the drug-target relationship direct (the drug binds the gene product) or indirect (the drug affects a pathway that contains the gene)? Direct relationships are far stronger evidence. KEGG coverage is not exhaustive — absence from KEGG does not mean absence of biological involvement; complement with Reactome, WikiPathways, or CTD for broader coverage. ID namespace differences are a frequent source of errors: KEGG uses its own gene IDs (e.g., hsa:7157 for TP53), so always convert external IDs before querying KEGG-specific tools.

LOOK UP DON'T GUESS: Do not assume KEGG disease IDs, drug IDs, or gene IDs from memory — always search first with KEGG_search_disease, KEGG_search_drug, or KEGG_convert_ids. Do not assume which pathways link a disease gene to a drug; use KEGG_link_entries and KEGG_get_network to retrieve the actual connections.

When to Use

• "What genes are associated with [disease] in KEGG?"
• "Find KEGG drugs targeting [gene/pathway]"
• "What variants are linked to [disease] in KEGG?"
• "Show the KEGG disease-gene-drug network for [condition]"
• "Find drugs targeting BRAF variants in cancer"

Tool Inventory (12 tools)