50 Approved Drug Compounds Can Fight Cancer Cells Without Damaging Healthy Cells, Study Suggests

KEY POINTS

Non-cancer drugs can prove to be effective in fighting cancer
New research finds these repurpose drug compounds
This study can help in developing new therapies

Some medicines are known to be effective for more than one disease. For instance, a drug named gabapentin is used to treat seizures in epilepsy, but it is also used as a painkiller.

A new study has revealed that some approved drugs can have never-heard-of anticancer properties. The study was conducted by the collaborative efforts of researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston and Broad Institute, which is a joint team of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Drug Repurposing Hub of Broad Institute is a big database created to assist researchers to find novel uses of approved drug compounds, Medical News Today reported. “We created the repurposing hub to enable researchers to make these kinds of serendipitous discoveries in a more deliberate way,” Dr. Steven Corsello, lead author of the study, said.

For this anticancer drug research, the team studied 4,518 drugs on 578 human cancer cell lines. In order to make the search effective, the scientists tagged the cell line with a DNA barcode. For tagging, they used a molecular method known as PRISM, which helps in screening drug compounds against a majority of cancer cell lines.

During the experiment, some drug compounds fought the cancer cells and revealed the unknown effects the compounds have on these rogue cells. “Most existing cancer drugs work by blocking proteins, but we’re finding that compounds can act through other mechanisms,” Dr. Corsello said.

The study showed that some drugs did not block proteins in cancer cells, however, the drugs activated other proteins to fight cancer cells. Drugs that are helpful in reducing inflammation, treating diabetes and controlling alcohol consumption now have the ability to treat cancer. Dr. Corsello is hopeful after this study. He has mentioned that the study gave them a head start on how the drugs could be behaving against the cancer cells. They can further this study in the lab and develop new therapies for cancer.