ReDo project: Repurposing non-approved drugs for cancer

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The ReDo Project | Repurposing Drugs In Oncology is an international collaboration to discover effective cancer treatments with low toxicity that meet the needs of existing patients at a affordable cost.
Basically, these are inexpensive generic drugs that were NOT developed for cancer, but have anti-cancer properties.
These are drugs that big pharma has little interest in since the cost of Phase III clinical trials to get FDA "indication" doesn't warrant any ROI. Some drugs are pursued in large RCT's, for example, "Metformin", the common diabetic drug, is in a large Phase III trial ending by late 2019, and discussed here. (This is an NCI sponsored trial - no big pharma involved).

This organization has investigated 70 non-cancer drugs and at the moment offered details on the following 6, here:

1. Mebendazole [MBZ] (Brand name: Vermox) | Anthelmintic. Used to treat infection by threadworms and other parasitic worms
2. Cimetidine (Brand name: Tagamet) | Antacid & Antihistamine. Used to treat ulcers and acid reflux.
3. Nitroglycerin | Vasodilator. A Cardiovascular agent for treatment of Angina.
4. Itraconazole (Brand name: Sporanox) | Anti-fungal.
5. Diclofenac (Brand names: Aclonac, Cataflam, Voltaren) | NSAID. Anti-inflammatory pain relief.
6. Clarithromycin (Brand name: Biaxin) | Antibiotic. Used in the treatment of upper respiratory tract infections.

These six have varying degrees of relevance in breast cancer, some have been the subject of threads in the forum, including:
1. Antihistamines may fight cancer (which cites "Cimetidine")

2. An Aspirin a day.... (thread created in 2010 citing NSAIDs like "Diclofenac")

Yesterday, the "AntiCancer Fund" wrote up an interesting piece on the NSAID "Diclofenac", citing its significant anti-cancer properties.

For those looking at CAM (Complementary and Integrative Medicine) approaches, the ReDo project findings might warrant review.

Comments

  • MusicLover
    MusicLover Member Posts: 4,225
    edited January 2016

    One of my friends nearly died because he consumed an aspirin a day for years, his wife found him on the bathroom floor - I forget how many pints of blood he needed. His doctor told him one whole aspirin a day was too much. I keep meaning to post this on that thread, just be careful of this. I think one baby aspirin a day, like St. Joseph's might be better.

    JS, Thank you for the information.

  • Fallleaves
    Fallleaves Member Posts: 806
    edited January 2016

    Great idea!

    Here's another study on aspirin for BC:

    Aspirin blocks growth of breast tumor cells and tumor-initiating cells and induces reprogramming factors of mesenchymal to epithelial transition.

    "We find that ASA not only prevents breast tumor cell growth in vitro and tumor growth in nude mice xenograft model through the induction of apoptosis, but also significantly reduces the self-renewal capacity and growth of breast tumor-initiating cells (BTICs)/breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) and delays the formation of a palpable tumor. Moreover, ASA regulates other pathophysiological events in breast carcinogenesis, such as reprogramming the mesenchymal to epithelial transition (MET) and delaying in vitro migration in BC cells."

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25867761


    Aspirin might also work synergistically with metformin against BC. This study looked at aspirin and metformin, and atenolol and metformin. (Atenolol is a pretty cheap beta blocker)

    Aspirin and atenolol enhance metformin activity against breast cancer by targeting both neoplastic and microenvironment cells.

    "In both immune-deficient and immune-competent preclinical models, Atenolol increased Metformin activity against angiogenesis, local and metastatic growth of HER2+ and triple negative BC. Aspirin increased the activity of Metformin only in immune-competent HER2+ BC models. Both Aspirin and Atenolol, when added to Metformin, significantly reduced the endothelial cell component of tumor vessels, whereas pericytes were reduced by the addition of Atenolol but not by the addition of Aspirin."

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26728433


    I notice there is an anthelmintic, Mebendazole, on the list. I ran across another anthelminthic recently that is being looked at for both BC (and other cancers) and MRSA, Niclosamide.

    Drug screening identifies niclosamide as an inhibitor of breast cancer stem-like cells.

    A clinically approved drug, niclosamide, was identified from the LOPAC chemical library of 1,258 compounds. Niclosamide downregulated stem pathways, inhibited the formation of spheroids, and induced apoptosis in breast cancer SPS. Animal studies also confirmed this therapeutic effect.

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24058587


    The anthelmintic drug niclosamide induces apoptosis, impairs metastasis and reduces immunosuppressive cells in breast cancer model.

    we found that niclosamide showed a dramatic growth inhibition against breast cancer cell lines and induced apoptosis of 4T1 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Further, Western blot analysis demonstrated the occurrence of its apoptosis was associated with activation of Cleaved caspases-3, down-regulation of Bcl-2, Mcl-1 and Survivin. Moreover, niclosamide blocked breast cancer cells migration and invasion, and the reduction of phosphorylated STAT3(Tyr705), phosphorylated FAK(Tyr925) and phosphorylated Src(Tyr416) were also observed. Furthermore, in our animal experiments, intraperitoneal administration of 20 mg/kg/d niclosamide suppressed 4T1 tumor growth without detectable toxicity. Histological and immunohistochemical analyses revealed a decrease in Ki67-positive cells, VEGF-positive cells and microvessel density (MVD) and an increase in Cleaved caspase-3-positive cells upon niclosamide. Notably, niclosamide reduced the number of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in tumor tissues and blocked formation of pulmonary metastases. Taken together, these results demonstrated that niclosamide may be a promising candidate for breast cancer.

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24416452






  • TectonicShift
    TectonicShift Member Posts: 752
    edited July 2020
  • TectonicShift
    TectonicShift Member Posts: 752
    edited July 2020
  • JohnSmith
    JohnSmith Member Posts: 651
    edited January 2016

    Here's another website discussing the value of drug "repurposing". "Repurposing Drugs 101"

    This portion of the site is worth a read: "What is Drug Repurposing?".

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