Title:Harnessing Drug Repurposing for Exploration of New Diseases: An Insight to Strategies and Case Studies
Volume: 21
Issue: 2
Author(s): Priti Jain*, Shreyans K. Jain and Munendra Jain
Affiliation:
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Computational Chemistry, R. C. Patel Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Shirpur, Dhule (425405) Maharashtra,India
Keywords:
Repurposing, approaches, rare diseases, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, neglected tropical
diseases, case studies, computational tools, and databases.
Abstract:
Background: Traditional drug discovery is time consuming, costly, and risky
process. Owing to the large investment, excessive attrition, and declined output, drug
repurposing has become a blooming approach for the identification and development of
new therapeutics. The method has gained momentum in the past few years and has
resulted in many excellent discoveries. Industries are resurrecting the failed and shelved
drugs to save time and cost. The process accounts for approximately 30% of the new
US Food and Drug Administration approved drugs and vaccines in recent years.
Methods: A systematic literature search using appropriate keywords were made to
identify articles discussing the different strategies being adopted for repurposing and
various drugs that have been/are being repurposed.
Results: This review aims to describe the comprehensive data about the various
strategies (Blinded search, computational approaches, and experimental approaches)
used for the repurposing along with success case studies (treatment for orphan
diseases, neglected tropical disease, neurodegenerative diseases, and drugs for
pediatric population). It also inculcates an elaborated list of more than 100 drugs that
have been repositioned, approaches adopted, and their present clinical status. We have
also attempted to incorporate the different databases used for computational
repurposing.
Conclusion: The data presented is proof that drug repurposing is a prolific approach
circumventing the issues poised by conventional drug discovery approaches. It is a
highly promising approach and when combined with sophisticated computational tools, it
also carries high precision. The review would help researches in prioritizing the drugrepositioning
method much needed to flourish the drug discovery research.