Computational approaches for innovative antiepileptic drug discovery

ALAN TALEVI

EXPERT OPINION ON DRUG DISCOVERY

INFORMA HEALTHCARE

Lugar: London; Año: 2016 vol. 11 p. 1001 - 1016

1746-0441

Introduction: Despite a large number of new generation antiepileptic agents have been approved in the last 25 years, no significant improvement in efficacy has so far been demonstrated, with one third of the patients suffering from intractable epilepsy. This scenario has prompted the search of innovative drug discovery solutions. Whereas network pharmacology and explanations to the drug resistance phenomena have been proposed to drive the search of more efficacious therapeutic solutions, such alternative approaches have not fully taken hold within the antiepileptic drug discovery community yet. Areas covered: The author discusses the impact that network pharmacology, current hypotheses of refractory epilepsy and drug repurposing could have if integrated to the computer-aided discovery of new antiepileptic agents. Expert opinion: While in the case of other complex disorders the advances in the knowledge of the pathophysiology of the disorder and the contribution of systems biology have been rapidly translated into novel drug candidates, antiepileptic drug developers have fallen a little behind in this regard, with fewer examples of computer-aided antiepileptic drug design and network-based approximations in the scientific literature. New generation single-target agents have so far shown limited success in terms of enhanced efficacy; multi-target agents could conjugate safety and efficacy advantages.