title: Drug Repurposing for the Development of Novel Analgesics.
abstract: Drug development consumes huge amounts of time and money and the search for novel analgesics, which are urgently required, is particularly difficult, having resulted in many setbacks in the past. Drug repurposing - the identification of new uses for existing drugs - is an alternative approach, which bypasses most of the time- and cost-consuming components of drug development. Recent, unexpected findings suggest a role for several existing drugs, such as minocycline, ceftriaxone, sivelestat, and pioglitazone, as novel analgesics in chronic and neuropathic pain states. Here, we discuss these findings as well as their proposed antihyperalgesic mechanisms and outline the merits of pathway-based repurposing screens, in combination with bioinformatics and novel cellular reprogramming techniques, for the identification of novel analgesics.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, pharmazentrum Frankfurt/ZAFES, University Hospital of Goethe-University, 60590 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sisignano
authors.affiliation: Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME), Project Group Translational Medicine and Pharmacology (TMP), Theodor-Stern-Kai 7, 60596 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Parnham
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, pharmazentrum Frankfurt/ZAFES, University Hospital of Goethe-University, 60590 Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME), Project Group Translational Medicine and Pharmacology (TMP), Theodor-Stern-Kai 7, 60596 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Electronic address: geisslinger@em.uni-frankfurt.de.
authors.forename: Gerd
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Geisslinger
mesh_terms: D000700:Analgesics / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000818:Animals; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / Q000379:methods; D058492:Drug Repositioning / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D000700:Analgesics
keywords: TRPV1; analgesic; drug repurposing; neuropathic pain; pain