A systematic screen of FDA-approved drugs for inhibitors of biological threat agents.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The rapid development of effective medical countermeasures against potential biological threat agents is vital. Repurposing existing drugs that may have unanticipated activities as potential countermeasures is one way to meet this important goal, since currently approved drugs already have well-established safety and pharmacokinetic profiles in patients, as well as manufacturing and distribution networks. Therefore, approved drugs could rapidly be made available for a new indication in an emergency.

Methodology/principal findings

A large systematic effort to determine whether existing drugs can be used against high containment bacterial and viral pathogens is described. We assembled and screened 1012 FDA-approved drugs for off-label broad-spectrum efficacy against

SUBMITTER: Madrid PB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3618516 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature