Teaching new tricks to old dogs: A review of drug repositioning of disulfiram for cancer nanomedicine

Abstract

The increasing incidence and mortality of malignant tumors have required the development of diversified innovative therapies. Compared with the new therapeutic molecule invention, it is a more economical and efficient way to reposition old drugs that have been marketed or in clinical trials for tumor treatment. Studies have been carried out for repositioning the old approval drugs that are widely applied clinically with reliable biosafety and effectiveness evidence, including aspirin, artemisinin (and its derivatives, eg, dihydroartemisinin), metformin, and disulfiram (DSF). In addition to the approved pharmacological activity, these old drugs exhibited broad tumor-suppressive effects. This review summarizes the drug repositioning strategy of DSF through nanotechnology and outlines the DSF nano-formulations for cancer targeting delivery and therapy.