PheSom: a term frequency-based method for measuring human phenotype similarity on the basis of MeSH vocabulary

Background: Phenotype similarity calculation should be used to help improve drug repurposing. In this study, based on the MeSH terms describing phenotypes deposited in OMIM, we proposed a method, namely, PheSom (Phenotype Similarity On MeSH), measure between phenotypes. counted number of overlapping two and then took weight every term within each phenotype into account according frequency-inverse document frequency (FIDC). Phenotype-related genes were for evaluation our method. Results: A 7,739 × score matrix was finally obtained pairs dramatically decreased with increase score. Besides, rates phenotype-related remarkably increased phenotypes, which supports reliability Conclusion: We anticipate method can applied identifying novel therapeutic methods complex diseases.