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Review
. 2021 Oct 26;14(11):1084.
doi: 10.3390/ph14111084.

Towards Drug Repurposing in Cancer Cachexia: Potential Targets and Candidates

Joana M O Santos  1   2 , Alexandra C Costa  1   2 , Tânia R Dias  1   2   3 , Setareh Satari  1   2 , Maria Paula Costa E Silva  2   4 , Rui M Gil da Costa  1   5   6   7 , Rui Medeiros  1   2   3   8   9
Affiliations
Review

Towards Drug Repurposing in Cancer Cachexia: Potential Targets and Candidates

Joana M O Santos et al. Pharmaceuticals (Basel). .

Abstract

As a multifactorial and multiorgan syndrome, cancer cachexia is associated with decreased tolerance to antitumor treatments and increased morbidity and mortality rates. The current approaches for the treatment of this syndrome are not always effective and well established. Drug repurposing or repositioning consists of the investigation of pharmacological components that are already available or in clinical trials for certain diseases and explores if they can be used for new indications. Its advantages comparing to de novo drugs development are the reduced amount of time spent and costs. In this paper, we selected drugs already available or in clinical trials for non-cachexia indications and that are related to the pathways and molecular components involved in the different phenotypes of cancer cachexia syndrome. Thus, we introduce known drugs as possible candidates for drug repurposing in the treatment of cancer-induced cachexia.

Keywords: cachexia; cancer; drug repositioning; drug repurposing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic representation of the paper approach.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Drugs present in cachexia’s phenotypes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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