Dozens of non-oncology drugs can be used as anti-cancer drugs, according to a new studyKill cancer cells. The researchers tested approximately 4,518 compounds on 578 human cancer cell lines. They found nearly 50 that had previously unrecognized anti-cancer activity. Medicine uses these drugs to treat conditions such as diabetes, inflammation, alcoholism and even arthritis in dogs. The results suggest a possible way to accelerate the development of new cancer drugs or to repurpose existing drugs to treat cancer.
Alternative medicines for cancer
It is the largest study conducted to date. This collection currently includes more than 6,000 medicines and active ingredients. These are either approved by the US Food and Drug Administration or have been proven to be safe in clinical studies. This is also the first time that researchers have examined the entire collection of drugs, most of which are not cancer drugs.
In the past, scientists have discovered new uses for some existing drugs, such as discovering the cardiovascular benefits of aspirin. “We created the Center for Reuse so that researchers can be more aware of these types of serendipitous discoveries,” said study lead author Steven Corsello, an oncologist at Dana-Farber.
Using a molecular coding system called PRISM, the researchers labeled each cell line with a DNA barcode. This meant they could combine several of them into each test tube and carry out a larger experiment more quickly. The team then exposed each pool of barcoded cells to a single compound from the library for reuse. They then measured the survival rate of the cancer cells. The team found almost 50 non-oncology drugs. These included those originally developed to lower cholesterol or reduce inflammation. These were able to kill some cancer cells while leaving others alone.
These unexpected mechanisms of action are easier to find with the study's cell-based approach, which measures cell survival, than with traditional non-cell-based high-throughput screening methods, Corsello said. Most of the non-oncology drugs that killed cancer cells in the study interacted with a previously unrecognized molecular target. For example, this killedanti-inflammatory drugTepoxalin also cancer cells.
Prospects for cancer treatment
“The genomic features gave us some initial hypotheses about how the anti-cancer drugs, which we can then take back for study in the lab, might work,” Corsello said. “Our understanding of how these drugs kill cancer cells gives us a starting point for developing new therapies.”
The researchers hope to study repurposing the compounds in more cancer cell lines. So science can include even more of them that are accessible to humans. The team will also continue to collect datathis studyanalyse, which is openly accessible to the scientific community. This allows them to better understand what drives the selective activity of the compounds.
