Key result
Drug repurposing of existing agents provides a lower-risk alternative for developing acute ischemic stroke treatments by targeting mechanisms such as vascular protection.
Why the study?
Does drug repurposing offer a viable strategy for developing treatments for acute ischemic stroke?
Does drug repurposing offer a viable strategy for developing treatments for acute ischemic stroke?
Repurposing existing safe drugs with pleiotropic effects, such as vascular protection, represents a promising strategy for acute stroke therapy development.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Supports further study of repurposed agents for acute ischemic stroke; leaves open efficacy pending randomized trials.
The development of new treatments for acute stroke has been fraught with costly and spectacularly disappointing failures. Repurposing of drugs already known to be safe provides a lower risk alternative. Investigators are using drug repurposing, in which marketed drugs are exploited for their secondary activity, to pursue agents that have multiple mechanisms of action, including vascular protection. Protecting the ischemic vasculature is likely to promote neuronal recovery and have long-lasting benefits for patients with stroke. Currently, reperfusion with drugs or devices and acute aspirin therapy are used clinically to reduce disability due to ischemic stroke. In the future, drugs such as statins, angiotensin II receptor blockers, minocycline, and growth factors such as erythropoietin may be used. In fact, vascular protection with the angiotensin II receptor blocker candesartan has already been demonstrated in a clinical trial of acute ischemic stroke.
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Susan C. Fagan (2010) conducted a review in Acute ischemic stroke. Drug repurposing (e.g., statins, angiotensin II receptor blockers, minocycline) was evaluated. Drug repurposing of existing agents provides a lower-risk alternative for developing acute ischemic stroke treatments by targeting mechanisms such as vascular protection.
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