Table 4.
Repurposing for pathogen-caused diseases of drugs not traditionally used for pathogen-caused diseases
| Drug or drug class | Traditional indication | New indication for pathogen-caused disease | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auranofin (disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, DMARDs) | Rheumatoid arthritis | Inhibition of biofilm formation | (She et al. 2019; Jang and Eom 2020) |
|
COX-inhibitors (e.g., diflunisal, piroxicam) |
Osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis | Infections with S. aureus and cryptococci | (Ogundeji et al. 2016; Carta et al. 2018) |
|
Dihydropyridines (e.g., nitrendipine) |
Hypertension | H. pylori infection | (González et al. 2019) |
| 5-Fluorouracil (classic cytostatics, pyrimidine analogs) | Various malignant tumor diseases | Bacterial infections | (Soo et al. 2016) |
| Metformin (biguanides, oral antidiabetics) | Type-2 diabetes | Malaria, trypanosomiasis, bacterial infections, hepatitis B | (Butts et al. 2014; Pryor and Cabreiro 2015; Honda et al. 2016; Kapoor et al. 2018; Martínez-Flórez et al. 2020) |
| Propranolol (β-adrenergic receptor antagonists, βxAR antagonists) | Migraine prophylaxis, tremor, infantile hemangioma | Hepatitis, C. albicans | (Ueno et al. 2009; Kapoor et al. 2018) |
| Thalidomide (hypnotics) | Sleeplessness in pregnant women | Tuberculous meningitis, leprosy | (Walker et al. 2015; Kumar et al. 2020) |
| Disulfiram | Treatment of alcoholism | Borrelia burgdorferi infection | (Potula et al. 2020) |
| Tamoxifen (selective estrogen receptor modulators, SERM) | Breast cancer | Cryptococcal infections | (Butts et al. 2014; Hai et al. 2019) |
| Statins (HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, e.g., atorvastatin, fluvastatin) | Hypercholesterinemia | Fungal infections | (Macreadie et al. 2006) |
| Sertraline (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, SSRI) | Major depressive disorder | S. aureus biofilm formation, fungal infections, parasitic infections | (Weeks et al. 2018; Muthu et al. 2019; Gowri et al. 2020) |
| Lorazepam (benzodiazepines, allosteric GABAA-receptor modulators) | Sedation, anxiety disorders | Fungal infections | (Kathwate et al. 2015) |
| Ticagrelor (irreversible P2Y12-receptor antagonists) | Thrombosis prevention and therapy | C. difficile infection | (Phanchana et al. 2020) |
In parentheses, representative names of drug classes (both traditional and mechanistic) are provided