Lee Hyeong-Min, Kim Yuna
Department of Cell Biology & Physiology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, 115 Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Duke University, 905 S. LaSalle Street, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
Schizophr Res Treatment. 2016;2016:6378137. doi: 10.1155/2016/6378137. Epub 2016 Mar 17.
Better the drugs you know than the drugs you do not know. Drug repurposing is a promising, fast, and cost effective method that can overcome traditional de novo drug discovery and development challenges of targeting neuropsychiatric and other disorders. Drug discovery and development targeting neuropsychiatric disorders are complicated because of the limitations in understanding pathophysiological phenomena. In addition, traditional de novo drug discovery and development are risky, expensive, and time-consuming processes. One alternative approach, drug repurposing, has emerged taking advantage of off-target effects of the existing drugs. In order to identify new opportunities for the existing drugs, it is essential for us to understand the mechanisms of action of drugs, both biologically and pharmacologically. By doing this, drug repurposing would be a more effective method to develop drugs against neuropsychiatric and other disorders. Here, we review the difficulties in drug discovery and development in neuropsychiatric disorders and the extent and perspectives of drug repurposing.
了解的药物总比不了解的药物好。药物再利用是一种有前景、快速且经济高效的方法，它可以克服传统从头开始的药物发现和开发在针对神经精神疾病及其他疾病方面所面临的挑战。由于在理解病理生理现象方面存在局限性，针对神经精神疾病的药物发现和开发很复杂。此外，传统的从头开始的药物发现和开发是有风险、昂贵且耗时的过程。一种替代方法——药物再利用，利用现有药物的脱靶效应应运而生。为了识别现有药物的新机会，我们必须从生物学和药理学两方面了解药物的作用机制。通过这样做，药物再利用将成为开发针对神经精神疾病及其他疾病药物的更有效方法。在此，我们综述了神经精神疾病药物发现和开发中的困难以及药物再利用的程度和前景。
