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Editorial
. 2020 May 13;9(5):1210.
doi: 10.3390/cells9051210.

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

Eleni Sertedaki  1 , Athanassios Kotsinas  1
Affiliations
Editorial

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

Eleni Sertedaki et al. Cells. .

Abstract

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.

Keywords: DNA damage; cancer; disulfiram; drug repurposing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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