Cells (May 2020)

Drug Repurposing and DNA Damage in Cancer Treatment: Facts and Misconceptions

  • Eleni Sertedaki,
  • Athanassios Kotsinas

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/cells9051210
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 5
p. 1210

Abstract

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Drug repurposing appears to offer an attractive alternative in finding new anticancer agents. Their applicability seems to have multiple benefits, among which are the potential of immediate efficacy assessment in clinical trials and the existence of patient safety and tolerability evidence. Nevertheless, their effective application in terms of tumor-type targeting requires accurate knowledge of their exact mechanism of action. In this review, we present such a successful drug, namely Disulfiram (commercially known as Antabuse), and discuss its recently uncovered mode of anticancer action through DNA damage.

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