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The Importance of Drug Repurposing in the Field of Antiepileptic Drug Development

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Antiepileptic Drug Discovery

Part of the book series: Methods in Pharmacology and Toxicology ((MIPT))

Abstract

Drug repurposing involves finding new therapeutic uses for existing drugs, including marketed, discontinued, shelved, and investigational drugs. The advantages of this strategy are many: reduced drug development timeline, best chances of surviving Phase II and Phase III clinical trials, simplified dosage form development, and, of course, added value to drugs belonging to a company or laboratory portfolio. The relatively high number of antiepileptic drugs which have been successfully repurposed and the fact that many drugs from other categories have proven anticonvulsant effects at the preclinical and even clinical level suggest that this strategy should be widely exploited in the antiepileptic drug discovery field. Here, we present an overview of the current approaches to drug repurposing, along with practical considerations to face a drug repurposing campaign to find new treatments for epilepsy and novel therapeutic uses for antiepileptic drugs.

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Acknowledgements

The author work is supported by Agencia de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (PICT 2013-3175), CONICET and Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Incentivos UNLP).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Investigación y Desarrollo de Bioactivos (LIDeB), Faculty of Exact Sciences, National University of La Plata (UNLP), 47 & 115, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Alan Talevi

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  1. Alan Talevi
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Correspondence to Alan Talevi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Investigación y Desarrollo de Bioactivos (LIDeB) Faculty of Exact Sciences, National University of La Plata, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Alan Talevi

  2. Department of Pharmacobiology, Center for Research and Advanced Studies, Mexico City, Mexico

    Luisa Rocha

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Talevi, A. (2016). The Importance of Drug Repurposing in the Field of Antiepileptic Drug Development. In: Talevi, A., Rocha, L. (eds) Antiepileptic Drug Discovery. Methods in Pharmacology and Toxicology. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6355-3_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6355-3_19

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-6353-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-6355-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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