Michał Antoszczak, Anna Markowska, Janina Markowska and Adam Huczyński* Pages 2137 - 2174 ( 38 )
Drug repurposing, also known as drug repositioning/reprofiling, is a relatively new strategy for the identification of alternative uses of well-known therapeutics that are outside the scope of their original medical indications. Such an approach might entail a number of advantages compared to standard de novo drug development, including less time needed to introduce the drug to the market, and lower costs. The group of compounds that could be considered as promising candidates for repurposing in oncology include the central nervous system drugs, especially selected antidepressant and antipsychotic agents. In this article, we provide an overview of some antidepressants (citalopram, fluoxetine, paroxetine, sertraline) and antipsychotics (chlorpromazine, pimozide, thioridazine, trifluoperazine) that have the potential to be repurposed as novel chemotherapeutics in cancer treatment, as they have been found to exhibit preventive and/or therapeutic action in cancer patients. Nevertheless, although drug repurposing seems to be an attractive strategy to search for oncological drugs, we would like to clearly indicate that it should not replace the search for new lead structures, but only complement de novo drug development.
Psychiatric agents, drug development, anticancer activity, in vitro tests, in vivo studies, chemosensitizers.
Department of Medical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, \Department of Perinatology and Women’s Diseases, Poznań University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, Department of Oncology, Poznań University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, Department of Medical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan