1st Edition

Drug Repositioning Approaches and Applications for Neurotherapeutics

Edited By Joel Dudley, Laura Berliocchi Copyright 2017
    329 Pages
    by CRC Press

    329 Pages 30 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    Nervous system diseases represent a major health concern worldwide. Although important financial and professional investment, their etiology and pathophysiology still remain mostly elusive. Moreover, the clinical need of disease-modifying therapies is still unmet.



    In the last decades, traditional R&D has failed in identifying new effective therapies in many medical areas and drug repositioning has recently emerged as a promising alternative strategy to de novo drug discovery to improve and accelerate therapeutic development.



    For the first time, Drug Repositioning: Approaches and Applications for Neurotherapeutics reviews history and advances in drug repositioning, with a special focus on therapeutics for nervous system diseases. International experts from Academia, Industry and Non-profit organisations will provide different views on drug repositioning advantages, challenges and specific applications, which will be covered for nervous system diseases including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's diseases, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Spinal Muscular Atrophy, ischemic stroke, and psychiatric disorders.





    This book provides a balanced overview and synthesis of drug repositioning concept, methods and applications for neurotherapeutics. It represents a valuable resource for students, scientists and clinicians working in academic settings, industry and government agencies within the fields of neuroscience, pharmacology, neurology, pharmaceutical sciences, drug discovery and development.

    Section I The Rationale and Economics



    of Drug Repositioning



    Chapter 1 Scientific and Commercial Value of Drug Repurposing



    David Cavalla



    Chapter 2 Repurposing for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases: The



    Ideas, the Pipeline, the Successes, and the Disappointments



    Hermann Mucke



    Chapter 3 Contribution of Not-for-Profit Organizations to Drug Repurposing



    Bruce Bloom



    Section II Repositioning Approaches and



    Technologies: From Serendipity to



    Systematic and Rational Strategies



    Chapter 4 Systematic Drug Repositioning



    Spyros N. Deftereos, Aris Persidis, Andreas Persidis,



    Eftychia Lekka, Christos Andronis, and Vassilis Virvillis



    Chapter 5 Technical Tools for Computational Drug Repositioning



    Francesco Napolitano



    Chapter 6 RNAi Screening toward Therapeutic Drug Repurposing



    Nichole Orr-Burks, Byoung-Shik Shim, Olivia Perwitasari,



    and Ralph A. Tripp



    Chapter 7 Phenotypic Screening



    Christine M. Macolino-Kane, John R. Ciallella,



    Christopher A. Lipinski, and Andrew G. Reaume



    Section III Drug Repositioning for



    Nervous System Diseases



    Chapter 8 A Case Study: Chlorpromazine



    Francisco López-Munoz, Cecilio Álamo,



    and Silvia E. García-Ramos



    Chapter 9 Drug Repurposing for Central Nervous System Disorders: A



    Pillar of New Drug Discovery



    Mondher Toumi, Aleksandra Caban, Anna Kapuśniak,



    Szymon Jarosławski, and Cecile Rémuzat



    Chapter 10 Repurposing Opportunities for Parkinson’s Disease Therapies



    Giulia Ambrosi, Silvia Cerri, and Fabio Blandini



    Chapter 11 Drug Candidates for Repositioning in Alzheimer’s Disease



    Maria P. del Castillo-Frias and Andrew J. Doig



    Biography



    Dr. Joel Dudley is associate professor of genetics and genomic sciences and director of biomedical informatics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York (NY, USA).



    Dr. Laura Berliocchi is associate professor of pharmacology at the Department of Health Sciences, Magna Graecia University (Catanzaro, Italy).

    This excellent book is a must read for those interested in drug-repositioning and those involved in the hunt for new effective neurotherapeutics. The introductory sections of the book provide not only a clear explanation of the merits of repositioning but also an honest consideration of the difficulties of the approach. This is well illustrated by examples from the fields of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s describing successes and failures.  Also introduced is the value of drug-repositioning to not-for profit organisations. Which adds to those who are involved in medical charity research to list of those who should read this publication. For the reader whose interest is piqued by the possibilities of drug repositioning and want to know more of the mechanics following chapters explore a variety of techniques that can be adopted for the identification of candidate repositioned therapies.  Again, these an honest consideration with both pro and cons described.   This makes the publication useful reading for any interested in repositioning irrespective of their field of interest.
    The latter sections focus on repositioning for a very diverse range of CNS conditions. These include Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Huntingdon’s, ALS, Spinal muscular atrophy and Ischaemic injury.  For those with specific interests in any of the above this is a useful work.  But in addition, I would recommend to those with a specific CNS disease interest reading the other chapters as they provide a potentially useful insight into methods and approaches than could be adopted within a specific interest.
    Taken together this is valuable read and reference work for a diverse readership.

    - Dr Alan Rothaul, Re-Pharm

    Drug repositioning, also known as repurposing, seems an easy and straight forward route for the successful development of drugs. However, aspects of value creation and sound business cases are still essential, eve