Method for Repurposing FDA-approved Therapeutics & Composition for Treating Mesothelioma

The amount of time and money that goes into getting a drug from initial discovery to FDA approval is substantial, typically involving at least 10 years and hundreds of millions of dollars. Because of this, there has been a growing interest in repurposing drugs which have previously been approved for human use, particularly since their MOA as well as side effects are well known. There is also interest in combinatorial therapies, as many single-agent drugs have shown limited effectiveness. Further, combinatorial therapies can often lead to reduced dosages of individual components and lowered reactivity.

 

Researchers at Arizona State University, in collaboration with Dr. Hoang at the NCI have developed a novel method of repurposing FDA-approved therapeutics for treatment of new indications. A computational drug repurposing algorithm was developed which utilizes functional genomics screen data, drug to gene associations, and pairwise combinations of FDA approved therapeutics to discover synergistic combinations for disease treatment. Further, they have discovered repurposed single agent and pairwise combinations of FDA approved inhibitors to kill or halt the proliferation of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) tumor cells. The use of these drugs for MPM is not known, nor is the pairwise combination.

 

The discovery of new indications for FDA-approved therapies, as well as a new treatment for MPM will have a huge impact on many patients as well as the currently dismal survival of persons afflicted with MPM.

 

Potential Applications

Benefits and Advantages

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