Structural re-positioning, in silico molecular modelling, oxidative degradation, and biological screening of linagliptin as adenosine 3 receptor (ADORA3) modulators targeting hepatocellular carcinoma.

J Enzyme Inhib Med Chem. 2018 Dec;33(1):858-866

Authors: Ayoub BM, Attia YM, Ahmed MS

Abstract
Chemical entities with structural diversity were introduced as candidates targeting adenosine receptor with different clinical activities, containing 3,7-dihydro-1H-purine-2,6-dione, especially adenosine 3 receptors (ADORA3). Our initial approach started with pharmacophore screening of ADORA3 modulators; to choose linagliptin (LIN), approved anti-diabetic drug as Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors, to be studied for its modulating effect towards ADORA3. This was followed by generation, purification, analytical method development, and structural elucidation of oxidative degraded product (DEG). Both of LIN and DEG showed inhibitory profile against hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines with induction of apoptosis at G2/M phase with increase in caspase-3 levels, accompanied by a downregulation in gene and protein expression levels of ADORA3 with a subsequent increase in cAMP. Quantitative in vitro assessment of LIN binding affinity against ADORA3 was also performed to exhibit inhibitory profile at Ki of 37.7 nM. In silico molecular modelling showing binding affinity of LIN and DEG towards ADORA3 was conducted.

PMID: 29768061 [PubMed - in process]

Screening a repurposing library, the Medicines for Malaria Venture Stasis Box, against Schistosoma mansoni.

Parasit Vectors. 2018 May 15;11(1):298

Authors: Pasche V, Laleu B, Keiser J

Abstract
BACKGROUND: The development of new treatments against schistosomiasis is imperative but lacks commercial interest. Drug repurposing represents a suitable strategy to identify potential treatments, which have already unblocked several essential steps along the drug development path, hence reducing costs and timelines. Promoting this approach, the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) recently distributed a drug repurposing library of 400 advanced lead candidates (Stasis Box).
METHODS: All 400 compounds were initially tested in vitro against the larval stage of Schistosoma mansoni at 10 μM. Hits progressed to screening on adult worms and were further characterised for IC50, cytotoxicity and selectivity. Ten lead compounds were tested in mice harbouring a chronic S. mansoni infection.
RESULTS: Eleven of the 37 compounds active on the larval stage were also highly active on adult worms in vitro (IC50 = 2.0-7.5 μM). IC50 values on adult S. mansoni decreased substantially in the presence of albumin (7.5-123.5 μM). Toxicity to L6 and MRC cells was moderate. A moderate worm burden reduction of 51.6% was observed for MMV690534, while the other 9 compounds showed low activity. None of the in vivo results were statistically significant (P > 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS: Phenotypic screening of advanced lead compounds is a simple and resource-low method to identify novel anthelminthics. None of the promising hits of the Stasis Box identified in vitro against S. mansoni yielded acceptable worm burden reductions in vivo, which might be due to the high plasma protein binding. Since the in vitro hits interfere with different drug targets, they might provide a starting point for target based screening and structure-activity relationship studies.

PMID: 29764454 [PubMed - in process]

The impact of transcription on metabolism in prostate and breast cancers.

Endocr Relat Cancer. 2018 May 14;:

Authors: Poulose N, Mills IG, Steele RE

Abstract
Metabolic dysregulation is regarded as an important driver in cancer development and progression. The impact of transcriptional changes on metabolism have been intensively studied in hormone-dependent cancers, and in particular in prostate and breast cancer. These cancers have strong similarities in the function of important transcriptional drivers, such as the estrogen and androgen receptor, at the level of dietary risk and epidemiology, genetics and therapeutically. In this review we will focus on the function of these nuclear hormone receptors and their downstream impact on metabolism, with a particular focus on lipid metabolism. We go on to discuss how lipid metabolism remains dysregulated as the cancers progress. We conclude by discussing the opportunities that this presents for drug repurposing, imaging and the development and testing of new therapeutics and treatment combinations.

PMID: 29760165 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Drug Repurposing for Viral Infectious Diseases: How Far Are We?

Trends Microbiol. 2018 May 11;:

Authors: Mercorelli B, Palù G, Loregian A

Abstract
Despite the recent advances in controlling some viral pathogens, most viral infections still lack specific treatment. Indeed, the need for effective therapeutic strategies to combat 'old', emergent, and re-emergent viruses is not paralleled by the approval of new antivirals. In the past years, drug repurposing combined with innovative approaches for drug validation, and with appropriate animal models, significantly contributed to the identification of new antiviral molecules and targets for therapeutic intervention. In this review, we describe the main strategies of drug repurposing in antiviral discovery, discuss the most promising candidates that could be repurposed to treat viral infections, and analyze the possible caveats of this trendy strategy of drug discovery.

PMID: 29759926 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Small molecule inhibition of apicomplexan FtsH1 disrupts plastid biogenesis in human pathogens.

Elife. 2017 Aug 18;6:

Authors: Amberg-Johnson K, Hari SB, Ganesan SM, Lorenzi HA, Sauer RT, Niles JC, Yeh E

Abstract
The malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum and related apicomplexan pathogens contain an essential plastid organelle, the apicoplast, which is a key anti-parasitic target. Derived from secondary endosymbiosis, the apicoplast depends on novel, but largely cryptic, mechanisms for protein/lipid import and organelle inheritance during parasite replication. These critical biogenesis pathways present untapped opportunities to discover new parasite-specific drug targets. We used an innovative screen to identify actinonin as having a novel mechanism-of-action inhibiting apicoplast biogenesis. Resistant mutation, chemical-genetic interaction, and biochemical inhibition demonstrate that the unexpected target of actinonin in P. falciparum and Toxoplasma gondii is FtsH1, a homolog of a bacterial membrane AAA+ metalloprotease. PfFtsH1 is the first novel factor required for apicoplast biogenesis identified in a phenotypic screen. Our findings demonstrate that FtsH1 is a novel and, importantly, druggable antimalarial target. Development of FtsH1 inhibitors will have significant advantages with improved drug kinetics and multistage efficacy against multiple human parasites.

PMID: 28826494 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Repositioning of the antipsychotic trifluoperazine: Synthesis, biological evaluation and in silico study of trifluoperazine analogs as anti-glioblastoma agents.

Eur J Med Chem. 2018 May 10;151:186-198

Authors: Kang S, Lee JM, Jeon B, Elkamhawy A, Paik S, Hong J, Oh SJ, Paek SH, Lee CJ, Hassan AHE, Kang SS, Roh EJ

Abstract
Repositioning of the antipsychotic drug trifluoperazine for treatment of glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumor, has been previously suggested. However, trifluoperazine did not increase the survival time in mice models of glioblastoma. In attempt to identify an effective trifluoperazine analog, fourteen compounds have been synthesized and biologically in vitro and in vivo assessed. Using MTT assay, compounds 3dc and 3dd elicited 4-5 times more potent inhibitory activity than trifluoperazine with IC50 = 2.3 and 2.2 μM against U87MG glioblastoma cells, as well as, IC50 = 2.2 and 2.1 μM against GBL28 human glioblastoma patient derived primary cells, respectively. Furthermore, they have shown a reasonable selectivity for glioblastoma cells over NSC normal neural cell. In vivo evaluation of analog 3dc confirmed its advantageous effect on reduction of tumor size and increasing the survival time in brain xenograft mouse model of glioblastoma. Molecular modeling simulation provided a reasonable explanation for the observed variation in the capability of the synthesized analogs to increase the intracellular Ca2+ levels. In summary, this study presents compound 3dc as a proposed new tool for the adjuvant chemotherapy of glioblastoma.

PMID: 29614416 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Repositioning drugs for traumatic brain injury - N-acetyl cysteine and Phenserine.

J Biomed Sci. 2017 Sep 09;24(1):71

Authors: Hoffer BJ, Pick CG, Hoffer ME, Becker RE, Chiang YH, Greig NH

Abstract
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality of both young adults of less than 45 years of age and the elderly, and contributes to about 30% of all injury deaths in the United States of America. Whereas there has been a significant improvement in our understanding of the mechanism that underpin the primary and secondary stages of damage associated with a TBI incident, to date however, this knowledge has not translated into the development of effective new pharmacological TBI treatment strategies. Prior experimental and clinical studies of drugs working via a single mechanism only may have failed to address the full range of pathologies that lead to the neuronal loss and cognitive impairment evident in TBI and other disorders. The present review focuses on two drugs with the potential to benefit multiple pathways considered important in TBI. Notably, both agents have already been developed into human studies for other conditions, and thus have the potential to be rapidly repositioned as TBI therapies. The first is N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) that is currently used in over the counter medications for its anti-inflammatory properties. The second is (-)-phenserine ((-)-Phen) that was originally developed as an experimental Alzheimer's disease (AD) drug. We briefly review background information about TBI and subsequently review literature suggesting that NAC and (-)-Phen may be useful therapeutic approaches for TBI, for which there are no currently approved drugs.

PMID: 28886718 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

The effects of buspirone on occupancy of dopamine receptors and the rat gambling task.

Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2017 Nov;234(22):3309-3320

Authors: Di Ciano P, Cormick PM, Stefan C, Wong E, Kim A, Remington G, Le Foll B

Abstract
BACKGROUND: The dopamine D3 receptor (DRD3) has been proposed as a target for drug development for the treatment of addictive disorders. Recently, the anxiolytic buspirone has been shown to have affinity for DRD3 and DRD4, and interest in repurposing it for addictive disorders has grown.
METHODS: Binding of [3H]-(+)-PHNO in the rat cerebellum and striatum was used to measure occupancy by buspirone of DRD3 or DRD2, respectively. Effects of buspirone in the rat gambling task (rGT) and the five-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT) were examined.
RESULTS: Buspirone occupied both the DRD2 and DRD3 at high doses and the DRD3, but not the DRD2, in the narrow dose range of 3 mg/kg. At 10 mg/kg, a disruption of performance on rGT was observed. All measures of performance on the rGT, except for perseverations, were affected at 3 mg/kg. On the 5-CSRTT, omissions were increased. Impairments in the rGT were not mimicked by the effects induced by satiation. Further, buspirone did not impair food-maintained responding under a progressive ratio schedule of reinforcement at any dose, suggesting that the effects of buspirone on the rGT cannot be explained by non-selective actions.
CONCLUSIONS: Although buspirone had effects on the rGT at the dose that selectively occupied the DRD3, the effects found do not parallel those found in previous studies of the effects of selective DRD3 antagonists on the rGT. Thus, buspirone may impair performance on the rGT through actions at multiple receptor sites.

PMID: 28825117 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Targeting transcriptional control of soluble guanylyl cyclase via NOTCH for prevention of cardiovascular disease.

Acta Physiol (Oxf). 2018 May 13;:e13094

Authors: Rippe C, Albinsson S, Guron G, Nilsson H, Swärd K

Abstract
Soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) is an effector enzyme of nitric oxide (NO). Recent work has unraveled how levels of this enzyme are controlled, and highlighted a role in vascular disease. We provide a timely summary of available knowledge on transcriptional regulation of sGC, including influences from the NOTCH signaling pathway and genetic variants. It is speculated that hypertension-induced repression of sGC starts a vicious circle that can be initiated by periods of stress, diet or genetic factors, and a key tenet is that reduction of sGC further raises blood pressure. The idea that dysregulation of sGC contributes to syndromes caused by defective NOTCH signaling is advanced, and we discuss drug repositioning for vascular disease prevention. The advantage of targeting sGC expression rather than activity is also considered. It is argued that transcriptional inputs on sGC arise from interactions with other cells, the extracellular matrix, and microRNAs (miRNAs), and concluded that the promise of sGC as a target for prevention of cardiovascular disease has increased in recent time. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

PMID: 29754438 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Feasibility and biological rationale of repurposing sunitinib and erlotinib for dengue treatment.

Antiviral Res. 2018 May 10;:

Authors: Pu S, Xiao F, Schor S, Bekerman E, Zanini F, Barouch-Bentov R, Nagamine CM, Einav S

Abstract
There is an urgent need for strategies to combat dengue virus (DENV) infection; a major global threat. We reported that the cellular kinases AAK1 and GAK regulate intracellular trafficking of multiple viruses and that sunitinib and erlotinib, approved anticancer drugs with potent activity against these kinases, protect DENV-infected mice from mortality. Nevertheless, further characterization of the therapeutic potential and underlying mechanism of this approach is required prior to clinical evaluation. Here, we demonstrate that sunitinib/erlotinib combination achieves sustained suppression of systemic infection at approved dose in DENV-infected IFN-α/β and IFN-γ receptor-deficient mice. Nevertheless, treatment with these blood-brain barrier impermeable drugs delays, yet does not prevent, late-onset paralysis; a common manifestation in this immunodeficient mouse model but not in humans. Sunitinib and erlotinib treatment also demonstrates efficacy in human primary monocyte-derived dendritic cells. Additionally, DENV infection induces expression of AAK1 transcripts, but not GAK, via single-cell transcriptomics, and these kinases are important molecular targets underlying the anti-DENV effect of sunitinib and erlotinib. Lastly, sunitinib/erlotinib combination alters inflammatory cytokine responses in DENV-infected mice. These findings support feasibility of repurposing sunitinib/erlotinib combination as a host-targeted antiviral approach and contribute to understanding its mechanism of antiviral action.

PMID: 29753658 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Old Drugs as New Treatments for Neurodegenerative Diseases.

Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2018 May 11;11(2):

Authors: Durães F, Pinto M, Sousa E

Abstract
Neurodegenerative diseases are increasing in number, given that the general global population is becoming older. They manifest themselves through mechanisms that are not fully understood, in many cases, and impair memory, cognition and movement. Currently, no neurodegenerative disease is curable, and the treatments available only manage the symptoms or halt the progression of the disease. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new treatments for this kind of disease, since the World Health Organization has predicted that neurodegenerative diseases affecting motor function will become the second-most prevalent cause of death in the next 20 years. New therapies can come from three main sources: synthesis, natural products, and existing drugs. This last source is known as drug repurposing, which is the most advantageous, since the drug’s pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles are already established, and the investment put into this strategy is not as significant as for the classic development of new drugs. There have been several studies on the potential of old drugs for the most relevant neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

PMID: 29751602 [PubMed]

Genetic Mechanisms of Asthma and the Implications for Drug Repositioning.

Genes (Basel). 2018 May 03;9(5):

Authors: Huo Y, Zhang HY

Abstract
Asthma is a chronic disease that is caused by airway inflammation. The main features of asthma are airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) and reversible airway obstruction. The disease is mainly managed using drug therapy. The current asthma drug treatments are divided into two categories, namely, anti-inflammatory drugs and bronchodilators. However, disease control in asthma patients is not very efficient because the pathogenesis of asthma is complicated, inducing factors that are varied, such as the differences between individual patients. In this paper, we delineate the genetic mechanisms of asthma, and present asthma-susceptible genes and genetic pharmacology in an attempt to find a diagnosis, early prevention, and treatment methods for asthma. Finally, we reposition some clinical drugs for asthma therapy, based on asthma genetics.

PMID: 29751569 [PubMed]

High-Throughput Flow Cytometry Identifies Small-Molecule Inhibitors for Drug Repurposing in T-ALL.

SLAS Discov. 2018 May 01;:2472555218774248

Authors: Perez DR, Nickl CK, Waller A, Delgado-Martin C, Woods T, Sharma ND, Hermiston ML, Loh ML, Hunger SP, Winter SS, Chigaev A, Edwards B, Sklar LA, Matlawska-Wasowska K

Abstract
Kinase inhibitors have dramatically increased patient survival in a multitude of cancers, including hematological malignancies. However, kinase inhibitors have not yet been integrated into current clinical trials for patients with T-cell-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). In this study, we used a high-throughput flow cytometry (HTFC) approach to test a collection of small-molecule inhibitors, including 26 FDA-approved tyrosine kinase inhibitors in a panel of T-ALL cell lines and patient-derived xenografts. Because hypoxia is known to cause resistance to chemotherapy, we developed a synthetic niche that mimics the low oxygen levels found in leukemic bone marrow to evaluate the effects of hypoxia on the tested inhibitors. Drug sensitivity screening was performed using the Agilent BioCel automated liquid handling system integrated with the HyperCyt HT flow cytometry platform, and the uptake of propidium iodide was used as an indication of cell viability. The HTFC dose-response testing identified several compounds that were efficacious in both normal and hypoxic conditions. This study shows that some clinically approved kinase inhibitors target T-ALL in the hypoxic niche of the bone marrow.

PMID: 29746793 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Multi-target drug repositioning by bipartite block-wise sparse multi-task learning.

BMC Syst Biol. 2018 Apr 24;12(Suppl 4):55

Authors: Li L, He X, Borgwardt K

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Finding potential drug targets is a crucial step in drug discovery and development. Recently, resources such as the Library of Integrated Network-Based Cellular Signatures (LINCS) L1000 database provide gene expression profiles induced by various chemical and genetic perturbations and thereby make it possible to analyze the relationship between compounds and gene targets at a genome-wide scale. Current approaches for comparing the expression profiles are based on pairwise connectivity mapping analysis. However, this method makes the simple assumption that the effect of a drug treatment is similar to knocking down its single target gene. Since many compounds can bind multiple targets, the pairwise mapping ignores the combined effects of multiple targets, and therefore fails to detect many potential targets of the compounds.
RESULTS: We propose an algorithm to find sets of gene knock-downs that induce gene expression changes similar to a drug treatment. Assuming that the effects of gene knock-downs are additive, we propose a novel bipartite block-wise sparse multi-task learning model with super-graph structure (BBSS-MTL) for multi-target drug repositioning that overcomes the restrictive assumptions of connectivity mapping analysis.
CONCLUSIONS: The proposed method BBSS-MTL is more accurate for predicting potential drug targets than the simple pairwise connectivity mapping analysis on five datasets generated from different cancer cell lines.
AVAILABILITY: The code can be obtained at http://gr.xjtu.edu.cn/web/liminli/codes .

PMID: 29745839 [PubMed - in process]

Repurposing drugs in oncology (ReDO)-selective PDE5 inhibitors as anti-cancer agents.

Ecancermedicalscience. 2018;12:824

Authors: Pantziarka P, Sukhatme V, Crispino S, Bouche G, Meheus L, Sukhatme VP

Abstract
Selective phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitors, including sildenafil, tadalafil and vardenafil, are widely-used in the treatment of erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension. They are also well-known as examples of successful drug repurposing in that they were initially developed for angina and only later developed for erectile dysfunction. However, these drugs may also be effective cancer treatments. A range of evidentiary sources are assessed in this paper and the case made that there is pre-clinical and clinical evidence that these drugs may offer clinical benefit in a range of cancers. In particular, evidence is presented that these drugs have potent immunomodulatory activity that warrants clinical study in combination with check-point inhibition.

PMID: 29743944 [PubMed]

Repurposing drugs to fast-track therapeutic agents for the treatment of cryptococcosis.

PeerJ. 2018;6:e4761

Authors: Truong M, Monahan LG, Carter DA, Charles IG

Abstract
Many infectious diseases disproportionately affect people in the developing world. Cryptococcal meningitis is one of the most common mycoses in HIV-AIDS patients, with the highest burden of disease in sub-Saharan Africa. Current best treatment regimens still result in unacceptably high mortality rates, and more effective antifungal agents are needed urgently. Drug development is hampered by the difficulty of developing effective antifungal agents that are not also toxic to human cells, and by a reluctance among pharmaceutical companies to invest in drugs that cannot guarantee a high financial return. Drug repurposing, where existing drugs are screened for alternative activities, is becoming an attractive approach in antimicrobial discovery programs, and various compound libraries are now commercially available. As these drugs have already undergone extensive optimisation and passed regulatory hurdles this can fast-track their progress to market for new uses. This study screened the Screen-Well Enzo library of 640 compounds for candidates that phenotypically inhibited the growth of Cryptococcus deuterogattii. The anthelminthic agent flubendazole, and L-type calcium channel blockers nifedipine, nisoldipine and felodipine, appeared particularly promising and were tested in additional strains and species. Flubendazole was very active against all pathogenic Cryptococcus species, with minimum inhibitory concentrations of 0.039-0.156 μg/mL, and was equally effective against isolates that were resistant to fluconazole. While nifedipine, nisoldipine and felodipine all inhibited Cryptococcus, nisoldipine was also effective against Candida, Saccharomyces and Aspergillus. This study validates repurposing as a rapid approach for finding new agents to treat neglected infectious diseases.

PMID: 29740519 [PubMed]

Modern Approaches for the Discovery of Anti-Infectious Drugs for the Treatment of Neglected Diseases.

Curr Top Med Chem. 2018 May 09;:

Authors: Bellera CL, Sbaraglini ML, Talevi A

Abstract
Neglected diseases comprise a number of infectious diseases historically endemic to low- and middle-income countries, though recently they have spread to high-income countries due to human migrations. In the past, pharmaceutical companies have shown hesitant to invest in these health conditions, due to the limited return on investment. As a result, the role of the academic sector and non-for-profit organizations in the discovery of new drugs for neglected diseases has been particularly relevant. <p> Here, we review recent applications of modern drug discovery technologies in the field of neglected diseases, including high-throughput screening, in silico screening and computer-aided drug design. The suitability and perspectives of each approach is discussed depending on the context, along with the technology and translational gaps influencing them.

PMID: 29741140 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Is the pharmaceutical industry's preoccupation with the monotherapy drug model stifling the development of effective new drug therapies?

Inflammopharmacology. 2018 May 07;:

Authors: Cock IE

Abstract
Drug discovery and development is heavily biased towards the development of monotherapies. Screening, testing, and evaluation of mono-entity drugs are generally much simpler than drug combinations, and are generally easier to get approval from the regulatory authorities for their clinical use. However, monotherapy drugs may not have optimal activity, may have associated toxicities, or may lose activity over time as their target develops resistance. Drug combinations, often developed from existing monotherapies, may have improved efficacy and/or be less toxic. Furthermore, the existing drugs which have lost efficacy due to the development of resistance can often be re-activated by combining them with other chemical entities. Thus, whilst the current climate for drug approval, registration, and clinical use drives the majority of drug development research towards the development of monotherapies, combinations are often a substantial improvement on the original drug. This commentary examines monotherapy and combinational therapy models and discusses the benefits and limitations of each model.

PMID: 29736688 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Clustering based drug-drug interaction networks for possible repositioning of drugs against EGFR mutations: Clustering based DDI networks for EGFR mutations.

Comput Biol Chem. 2018 Apr 27;75:24-31

Authors: Munir A, Elahi S, Masood N

Abstract
EGFRs are a vast group of receptor tyrosine kinases playing an important role in a number of tumors, including lungs, head and neck, breast, and esophageal cancers. A couple of techniques are being used in the process of drug design. Drug repositioning or repurposing is a rising idea that consists of distinguishing modern remedial indications for officially existing dynamic pharmaceutical compounds. Here, a novel approach of analyzing drug-drug interaction networks, based on clustering methodology is used to reposition effective compounds against mutant EGFR having G719X, exon 19 deletions/insertions, L858R, and L861Q mutations. Data about 2062 drugs are obtained, and mining is performed to filter only those drugs which fulfill Lipinski rule of five. Clustering is performed, and DDIs are built on the clusters to identify effective drug compounds. Only 1052 compounds fulfill Lipinski rule. 12 clusters are formed for 1052 drugs compounds. DDIs are developed for each cluster. Only 15 drugs are suggested to be more effective assuming strong interactions in a DDI.

PMID: 29730365 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Repurposing drugs for glioblastoma: from bench to bedside.

Cancer Lett. 2018 May 02;:

Authors: Basso J, Miranda A, Sousa J, Pais A, Vitorino C

Abstract
Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common, aggressive and lethal type of brain tumour. It is a stage IV cancer disease with a poor prognosis, as the current therapeutic options (surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy) are not able to eradicate tumour cells. The approach to treat glioblastoma has not suffered major changes over the last decade and temozolomide (TMZ) remains the mainstay for chemotherapy. However, resistance mechanisms to TMZ and other chemotherapeutic agents are becoming more frequent. The lack of effective options is a reality that may be counterbalanced by repositioning known and commonly used drugs for other diseases. This approach takes into consideration the available pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic, toxicity and safety data, and allows a much faster and less expensive drug and product development process. In this review, an extensive literature search is conducted aiming to list drugs with repurposing usage, based on their preferential damage in glioblastoma cells through various mechanisms. Some of these drugs have already entered clinical trials, exhibiting favourable outcomes, which sparks their potential application in glioblastoma treatment.

PMID: 29729291 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]