Repurposing Market Drugs to Target Epigenetic Enzymes in Human Diseases

Drug discovery is an exciting yet highly costly endeavor. In the United States, developing a new prescription medicine that gains marketing approval takes near a decade and costs drugmakers for near 3 billion. More challengingly, the success rate of a compound entering phase I trials is just slightly under 10%. Because of these mounting hurdles, repurposing market approved drugs to new clinical indications has been a new trend on the rise. Another merit to this approach is the already confirmed toxicity profiles of the drugs and their possession of drug-like features. Thus, repurposed drugs can reach the market approved stage in a much faster, cheaper, and more efficient way. Notably, epigenetic enzymes play a critical role in the etiology and progression of different diseases. Researchers are now assessing the possibilities of using market approved drugs to target epigenetic enzymes as a novel strategy to curtail disease progression. Thus, in this book chapter, we will provide an outlook on repurposing market drugs to target epigenetic enzymes in various diseases. Consequently, this book chapter will not only provide the readers with current knowledge in this specific field, but also will shed light on the pathway forward for repurposing market drugs to target epigenetic enzymes in human diseases.