4 Implication of drug repurposing in the identification of drugs for neurological disorders
Shikha Asthana, Vaibhav Lasure, Shivam Kumar Pandey, Avtar Singh Gautam, Rakesh Kumar Singh · Drug repurposing · 2023
Drug repurposing or repositioning is finding alternate therapeutic use of already clinically approved drugs for the treatment of disease. Drug discovery process costs billions of dollars and requires a very long period of time, whereas drug repurposing can overcome these drawbacks and can help identify potent drugs. Neurodegenerative diseases primarily affect the central nervous system and peripheral system, with complexed pathophysiology of the disease that limits the discovery of new drugs. However, drug repurposing utilizes the known drug profile of existing drugs for the development of new therapeutic uses of the drugs. There are various drugs (e.g., Minocycline fenfluramine and propranolol) that were developed for a particular indication, but drug repurposing techniques led to the development of another therapeutic use that has been proven effective in the treatment. This book chapter focuses on the different techniques used for the drug repurposing and the repurposed drugs for the neurodegenerative disease.