Guwahati: Researchers at the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST), Guwahati, have discovered that the antidepressant drug Selegiline (L-deprenyl) may be repurposed to treat breast cancer, offering a potentially cost-effective solution for cancer therapy.
The team, led by Dr. Asis Bala, focused on drug repurposing—a strategy that leverages existing drugs for new therapeutic uses, addressing the challenges of high costs and lengthy development times associated with new anticancer drugs. Their study has demonstrated that Selegiline, a monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitor, can effectively target estrogen and progesterone-positive (ER+ & PR+) as well as triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells.
The research highlights Selegiline’s ability to induce cell death in breast cancer cells through a mechanism independent of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and to inhibit protein kinase C phosphorylation, a process implicated in cancer cell survival. These findings, published in the journal Medical Oncology, pave the way for further exploration of Selegiline’s potential as a breast cancer treatment, including in vivo efficacy studies, dose optimization, and safety evaluations.
