Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B

Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B

Volume 12, Issue 2, February 2022, Pages 532-557
Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B

REVIEW
Repurposing non-oncology small-molecule drugs to improve cancer therapy: Current situation and future directions

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsb.2021.09.006Get rights and content
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Abstract

Drug repurposing or repositioning has been well-known to refer to the therapeutic applications of a drug for another indication other than it was originally approved for. Repurposing non-oncology small-molecule drugs has been increasingly becoming an attractive approach to improve cancer therapy, with potentially lower overall costs and shorter timelines. Several non-oncology drugs approved by FDA have been recently reported to treat different types of human cancers, with the aid of some new emerging technologies, such as omics sequencing and artificial intelligence to overcome the bottleneck of drug repurposing. Therefore, in this review, we focus on summarizing the therapeutic potential of non-oncology drugs, including cardiovascular drugs, microbiological drugs, small-molecule antibiotics, anti-viral drugs, anti-inflammatory drugs, anti-neurodegenerative drugs, antipsychotic drugs, antidepressants, and other drugs in human cancers. We also discuss their novel potential targets and relevant signaling pathways of these old non-oncology drugs in cancer therapies. Taken together, these inspiring findings will shed new light on repurposing more non-oncology small-molecule drugs with their intricate molecular mechanisms for future cancer drug discovery.

Graphical abstract

Repurposing non-oncology drugs have been used to improve cancer therapy with the processes of target identification, in vitro and in vivo experiments, and clinical trials from the current situation to future directions.

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Key words

Drug repurposing
Non-oncology drug
Cancer therapy
Cardiovascular drug
Microbiological drug
Small-molecule antibiotics
Anti-viral drug
Anti-inflammatory drug

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Peer review under responsibility of Chinese Pharmaceutical Association and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

These authors made equal contributions to this work.