Title:High-throughput Drug Repositioning for the Discovery of New Treatments for Chagas Disease
Volume: 15
Issue: 3
Author(s): Carolina L. Bellera, Maria L. Sbaraglini, Dario E. Balcazar, Laura Fraccaroli, M. Cristina Vanrell, A. Florencia Casassa, Carlos A. Labriola, Patricia S. Romano, Carolina Carrillo and Alan Talevi
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Chagas disease, computer-guided drug repositioning, drug repositioning, drug repurposing, neglected diseases,
indication expansion, high-throughput drug repurposing.
Abstract: Despite affecting around 8 million people worldwide and representing an economic burden
above $7 billion/ year, currently approved medications to treat Chagas disease are still limited to two
drugs, nifurtimox and benznidazole, which were developed more than 40 years ago and present
important efficacy and safety limitations. Drug repositioning (i.e. finding second or further therapeutic indications for
known drugs) has raised considerable interest within the international drug development community. There are many
explanations to the current interest on drug repositioning including the possibility to partially circumvent clinical trials
and the consequent saving in time and resources. It has been suggested as a particular attractive approach for the
development 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 stories
oriented to Chagas disease, with a focus on computer-guided drug repositioning campaigns.