Drug Repurposing for the Development of Novel Analgesics

Drug development consumes huge amounts of time and money and the search for novel analgesics, which are urgently required, is particularly difficult, having resulted in many setbacks in the past. Drug repurposing – the identification of new uses for existing drugs – is an alternative approach, which...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Trends in pharmacological sciences (Regular ed.) 2016-03, Vol.37 (3), p.172-183
Main Authors: Sisignano, Marco, Parnham, Michael J, Geisslinger, Gerd
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advanced Basic Science
analgesic
Analgesics - pharmacology
Analgesics - therapeutic use
Animals
Drug Evaluation, Preclinical - methods
Drug Repositioning - methods
drug repurposing
Humans
neuropathic pain
pain
TRPV1
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Summary:Drug development consumes huge amounts of time and money and the search for novel analgesics, which are urgently required, is particularly difficult, having resulted in many setbacks in the past. Drug repurposing – the identification of new uses for existing drugs – is an alternative approach, which bypasses most of the time- and cost-consuming components of drug development. Recent, unexpected findings suggest a role for several existing drugs, such as minocycline, ceftriaxone, sivelestat, and pioglitazone, as novel analgesics in chronic and neuropathic pain states. Here, we discuss these findings as well as their proposed antihyperalgesic mechanisms and outline the merits of pathway-based repurposing screens, in combination with bioinformatics and novel cellular reprogramming techniques, for the identification of novel analgesics.
ISSN:0165-6147
1873-3735
DOI:10.1016/j.tips.2015.11.006