Lentini, Giovanni and Habtemariam, Solomon (2015) Ebola therapy: Developing new drugs or repurposing old ones? International Journal of Cardiology, 179. p. 325. ISSN 0167-5273 (doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2014.11.092)

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Abstract

The lack of Ebola therapies has recently kindled the debate about the possible repurposing of approved organotropic (i. e., not etiotropic) drugs for the treatment of this unmet medical emergency [1]. The scientific community is now facing an apparently dichotomal opportunity: focusing efforts on the time-consuming attempt to develop new drugs [2] or preferring the apparently quicker approach of repurposed ones [3]. Of course, each choice would subtract time and resources to the other and some scholars fear the possibility that some of the repurposed drugs might even worsen the viral pathology by changing the immune response [1]. Probably, what we are going to say is trivial, but we wonder if any statistical analysis of the organotropic therapies circumstantially used so far by Ebola patients has been done. This study could suggest which drugs might be more suited to offer beneficial effect against Ebola, if any. For example, some cardiovascular drugs previously demonstrated to be endowed with antiviral properties in vitro [3], might display higher prevalence amongst survived Ebola patients, thus proposing themselves as candidates for repurposing. Conversely, the systematic review of the medicines assumed in unlucky anecdotes might indicate which drugs should be considered as the second choice in the above studies.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	[1] The 'Author's Accepted Manuscript' version is attached to this record. [2] Please cite this article as: Lentini Giovanni, Habtemariam Solomon, Ebola therapy: Developing new drugs or repurposing old ones?, International Journal of Cardiology (2014), doi: 10.1016/j.ijcard.2014.11.092 [2] Publisher's note (Elsevier): This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	cardiovascular drugs, Ebola, repurposing
Subjects:	R Medicine > R Medicine (General) R Medicine > RM Therapeutics. Pharmacology
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Engineering & Science
Related URLs:	Publisher
Last Modified:	21 Oct 2016 10:09
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/12519

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