alt Hacker NewsCan you explain what you mean by subtyping and if/how it negates the usefulness of repurposing (if that’s what you meant to say). Wouldn’t subtyping complement a drug repurposing screen by allowing the scientist to test compounds against a subset of a disease?
And drug repurposing is also used for conditions with no known molecular basis like autism. You’re not suggesting its usefulness is limited in those cases right?
Sure. There are studies like BEAT-AML which tests selected drugs’ responses on primary AML material. So, not on a cell-line but on true patient data. Combining this information with molecular measurements, you can actually say something about which drugs would be useful for a subset of the patients.
However, this is still not how you treat a patient. There are standard practices in the clinic. Usually the first line treatment is induction chemo with hypomethylating agents (except elderly who might not be eligible for such a treatment). Otherwise the options are still very limited, the “best” drug in the field so far is a drug called Venetoclax, but more things are coming up such as immuno-therapy etc. It’s a very complex domain, so drug repurposing on an AML cell line is not a wow moment for me.