High-throughput Drug Repositioning for the Discovery of New Treatments for Chagas Disease

BELLERA C; SBARAGLINI L ; BALCAZAR D ; FRACCAROLI L; VERNELL C; CASASSA A; LABRIOLA C ; ROMANO P ; CARRILLO C ; TALEVI A

MINI-REVIEWS IN MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY

BENTHAM SCIENCE PUBL LTD

Lugar: Oak Park; Año: 2015 vol. 15 p. 182 - 193

1389-5575

Abstract: Despite affecting around 8 million people worldwide and representing an economic burdenabove $7 billion/ year, currently approved medications to treat Chagas disease are still limited to twodrugs, nifurtimox and benznidazole, which were developed more than 40 years ago and presentimportant efficacy and safety limitations. Drug repositioning (i.e. finding second or further therapeutic indications forknown drugs) has raised considerable interest within the international drug development community. There are manyexplanations to the current interest on drug repositioning including the possibility to partially circumvent clinical trialsand the consequent saving in time and resources. It has been suggested as a particular attractive approach for thedevelopment of novel therapeutics for neglected diseases, which are usually driven by public or non-profit organizations.Here we review current computer-guided approaches to drug repositioning and reports on drug repositioning storiesoriented to Chagas disease, with a focus on computer-guided drug repositioning campaigns.