Amantadine inhibits cellular proliferation and induces the apoptosis of hepatocellular cancer cells in vitro

Amantadine mitigates the cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of doxorubicin in SH-SY5Y cells and reduces its mutagenicity

Amantadine (AMA) is a useful drug in neuronal disorders, but few studies have been performed to access its toxicological profile. Conversely, doxorubicin (Dox) is a well-known antineoplastic drug that has shown neurotoxic effects leading to cognitive impairment. The aims of this study are to evaluate the cytotoxic, genotoxic, and mutagenic effects of AMA, as well as its possible protective actions against deleterious effects of Dox. The Salmonella/microsome assay was performed to assess mutagenicity while cytotoxicity and genotoxicity were evaluated in SH-SY5Y cells using MTT and comet assays. Possible modulating effects of AMA on the cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, and mutagenicity induced by Dox were evaluated through cotreatment procedures. Amantadine did not induce mutations in the Salmonella/microsome assay and decreased Dox-induced mutagenicity in the TA98 strain. AMA reduced cell viability and induced DNA damage in SH-SY5Y cells. In cotreatment with Dox, AMA attenuated the cytotoxicity of Dox and showed an antigenotoxic effect. In conclusion, AMA does not induce gene mutations, although it has shown a genotoxic effect. Furthermore, AMA decreases frameshift mutations induced by Dox as well as the cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of Dox in SH-SY5Y cells, suggesting that AMA can interfere with Dox mutagenic activity and attenuate its neurotoxic effects.

Copper-Based Complexes with Adamantane Ring-Conjugated bis(3,5-Dimethyl-pyrazol-1-yl)acetate Ligand as Promising Agents for the Treatment of Glioblastoma

The new ligand L2Ad, obtained by conjugating the bifunctional species bis(3,5-dimethylpyrazol-1-yl)-acetate and the drug amantadine, was used as a chelator for the synthesis of new Cu complexes 1-5. Their structures were investigated by synchrotron radiation-induced X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (SR-XPS), near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy, and by combining X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) spectroscopy techniques and DFT modeling. The structure of complex 3 was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Tested on U87, T98, and U251 glioma cells, Cu(II) complex 3 and Cu(I) complex 5 decreased cell viability with IC50 values significantly lower than cisplatin, affecting cell growth, proliferation, and death. Their effects were prevented by treatment with the Cu chelator tetrathiomolybdate, suggesting the involvement of copper in their cytotoxic activity. Both complexes were able to increase ROS production, leading to DNA damage and death. Interestingly, nontoxic doses of 3 or 5 enhanced the chemosensitivity to Temozolomide.

Anticancer Activity of Amantadine and Evaluation of Its Interactions with Selected Cytostatics in Relation to Human Melanoma Cells

Patients with Parkinson’s disease are prone to a higher incidence of melanoma. Amantadine (an anti-Parkinson drug) possesses the antiproliferative potential that can be favorable when combined with other chemotherapeutics. Cisplatin (CDDP) and mitoxantrone (MTO) are drugs used in melanoma chemotherapy, but they have many side effects. (1) Clinical observations revealed a high incidence of malignant melanoma in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Amantadine as an anti-Parkinson drug alleviates symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and theoretically, it should have anti-melanoma properties. (2) To characterize the interaction profile for combinations of amantadine with CDDP and MTO in four human melanoma cell lines (A375, SK-MEL 28, FM55P and FM55M2), type I isobolographic analysis was used in the MTT test. (3) Amantadine produces the anti-proliferative effects in various melanoma cell lines. Flow cytometry analysis indicated that amantadine induced apoptosis and G1/S phase cell cycle arrest. Western blotting analysis showed that amantadine markedly decreased cyclin-D1 protein levels and increased p21 levels. Additionally, amantadine significantly increased the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. The combined application of amantadine with CDDP at the fixed-ratio of 1:1 exerted an additive interaction in the four studied cell lines in the MTT test. In contrast, the combination of amantadine with MTO (ratio of 1:1) produced synergistic interaction in the FM55M2 cell line in the MTT (* p < 0.05). The combination of amantadine with MTO was also additive in the remaining tested cell lines (A375, FM55P and SK-MEL28) in the MTT test. (4) Amantadine combined with MTO exerted the most desirable synergistic interaction, as assessed isobolographically. Additionally, the exposure of melanoma cell lines to amantadine in combination with CDDP or MTO augmented the induction of apoptosis mediated by amantadine alone.

Drug Repurposing Strategies for Non-Cancer to Cancer Therapeutics

Global efforts invested for the prevention and treatment of cancer need to be repositioned to develop safe, effective, and economic anticancer therapeutics by adopting rational approaches of drug discovery. Drug repurposing is one of the established approaches to reposition old, clinically approved off patent noncancer drugs with known targets into newer indications. The literature review suggests key role of drug repurposing in the development of drugs intended for cancer as well as noncancer therapeutics. A wide category of noncancer drugs namely, drugs acting on CNS, anthelmintics, cardiovascular drugs, antimalarial drugs, anti-inflammatory drugs have come out with interesting outcomes during preclinical and clinical phases. In the present article a comprehensive overview of the current scenario of drug repurposing for the treatment of cancer has been focused. The details of some successful studies along with examples have been included followed by associated challenges.

Amantadine: reappraisal of the timeless diamond-target updates and novel therapeutic potentials

The aim of the current review was to provide a new, in-depth insight into possible pharmacological targets of amantadine to pave the way to extending its therapeutic use to further indications beyond Parkinson's disease symptoms and viral infections. Considering amantadine's affinities in vitro and the expected concentration at targets at therapeutic doses in humans, the following primary targets seem to be most plausible: aromatic amino acids decarboxylase, glial-cell derived neurotrophic factor, sigma-1 receptors, phosphodiesterases, and nicotinic receptors. Further three targets could play a role to a lesser extent: NMDA receptors, 5-HT3 receptors, and potassium channels. Based on published clinical studies, traumatic brain injury, fatigue [e.g., in multiple sclerosis (MS)], and chorea in Huntington's disease should be regarded potential, encouraging indications. Preclinical investigations suggest amantadine's therapeutic potential in several further indications such as: depression, recovery after spinal cord injury, neuroprotection in MS, and cutaneous pain. Query in the database http://www.clinicaltrials.gov reveals research interest in several further indications: cancer, autism, cocaine abuse, MS, diabetes, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, obesity, and schizophrenia.

Drug rechanneling: A novel paradigm for cancer treatment

Cancer continues to be one of the leading contributors towards global disease burden. According to NIH, cancer incidence rate per year will increase to 23.6 million by 2030. Even though cancer continues to be a major proportion of the disease burden worldwide, it has the lowest clinical trial success rate amongst other diseases. Hence, there is an unmet need for novel, affordable and effective anti-neoplastic medications. As a result, a growing interest has sparkled amongst researchers towards drug repurposing. Drug repurposing follows the principle of polypharmacology, which states, "any drug with multiple targets or off targets can present several modes of action". Drug repurposing also known as drug rechanneling, or drug repositioning is an economic and reliable approach that identifies new disease treatment of already approved drugs. Repurposing guarantees expedited access of drugs to the patients as these drugs are already FDA approved and their safety and toxicity profile is completely established. Epidemiological studies have identified the decreased occurrence of oncological or non-oncological conditions in patients undergoing treatment with FDA approved drugs. Data from multiple experimental studies and clinical observations have depicted that several non-neoplastic drugs have potential anticancer activity. In this review, we have summarized the potential anti-cancer effects of anti-psychotic, anti-malarial, anti-viral and anti-emetic drugs with a brief overview on their mechanism and pathways in different cancer types. This review highlights promising evidences for the repurposing of drugs in oncology.

Drug repurposing in oncology: Compounds, pathways, phenotypes and computational approaches for colorectal cancer

The strategy of using existing drugs originally developed for one disease to treat other indications has found success across medical fields. Such drug repurposing promises faster access of drugs to patients while reducing costs in the long and difficult process of drug development. However, the number of existing drugs and diseases, together with the heterogeneity of patients and diseases, notably including cancers, can make repurposing time consuming and inefficient. The key question we address is how to efficiently repurpose an existing drug to treat a given indication. As drug efficacy remains the main bottleneck for overall success, we discuss the need for machine-learning computational methods in combination with specific phenotypic studies along with mechanistic studies, chemical genetics and omics assays to successfully predict disease-drug pairs. Such a pipeline could be particularly important to cancer patients who face heterogeneous, recurrent and metastatic disease and need fast and personalized treatments. Here we focus on drug repurposing for colorectal cancer and describe selected therapeutics already repositioned for its prevention and/or treatment as well as potential candidates. We consider this review as a selective compilation of approaches and methodologies, and argue how, taken together, they could bring drug repurposing to the next level.

Discovery of potential transcriptional biomarkers in broiler chicken for detection of amantadine abuse based on RNA sequencing technology

The aim of this study was to identify candidate transcriptional biomarkers so as to provide a new method for monitoring amantadine residues during the feeding of broiler chicken. RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and bioinformatic analyses were conducted to examine the transcriptomic changes and screen differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in broiler chicken breast muscle and liver tissues treated with amantadine. The results indicated that a total of 170 DEGs were screened from broiler chicken breast muscle tissues after amantadine was fed. Among the genes, 120 were up-regulated and 50 were down-regulated. The gene ontology (GO) terms for these genes mainly existed in the areas of hydrolase activity, immune reaction and chemokine activity. The significantly enriched pathways in the Kyoto Encyclopedia for Genes and Genomes (KEGG) were in phagosomes, cell adhesion molecules (CAMs), lysosomes and extracellular matrix (ECM) receptors. From the broiler chicken liver tissues, 172 DEGs were screened, among which 116 were up-regulated and 56 were down-regulated. The GO terms of these DEGs were related to functions such as catalytic activities, metabolic activities, oxidation-reduction activities, immune reactions and cofactor binding. The significantly enriched KEGG pathways existed in metabolism, CAM, ECM receptor reaction and drug metabolism-cytochrome P450. According to the fold-change (FC), significance levels, functional annotations and possible biological processes of DEGs, 11 and 9 candidate DEGs related to amantadine treatment were further screened from broiler chicken breast muscle and liver tissues, respectively. In addition, the quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) verification showed exactly concordant results with the RNA-seq data. Principal components analysis (PCA) on the qRT-PCR data resulted in the separation of treated samples from the control samples in both tissues. The results provided a basis for identification of transcriptional biomarkers for detecting amantadine residues in broiler chicken breast muscle and liver tissues.