An antidepressant drug has the potential of being repurposed to provide a cost-effective solution for the treatment of breast cancer.

Dr Asis Bala and his team of researchers at the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology in Guwahati, an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology, have been working in this field of drug repurposing to develop improved therapeutic strategies for cancer management.

Read in Hindi: स्तन कैंसर के इलाज में ‘एंटीडिप्रेसेंट’ का हो सकता है उपयोग

This research group has shown that Selegiline i.e. L-deprenyl, an antidepressant drug from a class of drugs called monoamine oxidase inhibitors, might be applied as anticancer therapeutics for breast cancer.

The integrated network pharmacological studies found that selegiline interacts with ten genes intricately linked to various types of cancer, with a significant number of nodes. The study conducted a preliminary comparative evaluation of the efficacy of selegiline on six cancer cell lines. Selegiline was found effective in killing estrogen and progesterone-positive as well as triple-negative breast cancer.

It can induce cell death in breast cancer cells by a mechanism that does not depend on reactive oxygen species. Additionally, it inhibits a process called protein kinase C phosphorylation in breast cancer cells, which suggests that this process might be involved in the cell death caused by selegiline. This recent study, published in the journal ‘Medical Oncology’, could help biomedical scientists explore this area further.

The research is the first of its kind and holds great significance in the field of cancer research. It deserves further investigation in terms of in vivo efficacy study, dose optimization, contraindications, and associated adverse side effects in the near future.