Title:Anticancer Drug Discovery By Structure-Based Repositioning Approach
Volume: 24
Issue: 1
Author(s): Dharti H. Modh and Vithal M. Kulkarni*
Affiliation:
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Poona College of Pharmacy, Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be) University,
Erandwane, Pune, 411038, Maharashtra, India
Keywords:
Repositioning, Anti-diabetic, Anti-HIV, Anti-inflammatory scaffolds/drugs, Sulfonamides, Molecules.
Abstract: Despite the tremendous progress that has occurred in recent years in cell biology and oncology,
in chemical, physical and computer sciences, the disease cancer has continued as the major
cause of death globally. Research organizations, academic institutions and pharmaceutical companies
invest huge amounts of money in the discovery and development of new anticancer drugs. Though
much effort is continuing and whatever available approaches are being attempted, the success of
bringing one effective drug into the market has been uncertain. To overcome problems associated with
drug discovery, several approaches are being attempted. One such approach has been the use of
known, approved and marketed drugs to screen these for new indications, which have gained considerable
interest. This approach is known in different terms as “drug repositioning or drug repurposing.”
Drug repositioning refers to the structure modification of the active molecule by synthesis, in vitro/
in vivo screening and in silico computational applications where macromolecular structure-based drug
design (SBDD) is employed. In this perspective, we aimed to focus on the application of repositioning
or repurposing of essential drug moieties present in drugs that are already used for the treatment of
some diseases such as diabetes, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and inflammation as
anticancer agents. This review thus covers the available literature where molecular modeling of
drugs/enzyme inhibitors through SBDD is reported for antidiabetics, anti-HIV and inflammatory diseases,
which are structurally modified and screened for anticancer activity using respective cell lines.
