Repurposing Drugs for Treatment of Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Sarah G Francisco; Sheldon Rowan

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-27681-1_12

Repurposing Drugs for Treatment of Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Adv Exp Med Biol. 2023:1415:73-77. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-27681-1_12.

Authors

Sarah G Francisco¹, Sheldon Rowan^{2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ JM-USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA.
² JM-USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA. sheldon.rowan@tufts.edu.
³ Department of Ophthalmology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA. sheldon.rowan@tufts.edu.
⁴ Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA. sheldon.rowan@tufts.edu.

PMID: 37440017
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-27681-1_12

Abstract

The need for new drugs to treat dry forms of age-related macular degeneration remains high. A promising approach is repurposing of FDA-approved medications to treat AMD. Databases containing medical and drug records allow for retroactive identification of drugs whose use correlates with reduced AMD diagnosis. This short review summarizes progress in several classes of drugs considered for repurposing: GPR-143 agonists (L-DOPA), anti-diabetic drugs (metformin, acarbose, empagliflozin, fenofibrate), mitochondrial activators (PU-91), and serotonin pathway drugs (fluoxetine, flibanserin, xaliproden, buspirone). The promises and caveats of repurposing are discussed herein.

Keywords: Age-related macular degeneration; Anti-diabetic drugs; Drug repurposing; Fluoxetine; L-DOPA; Medical records database; Metformin; Mitochondria; Propensity matching; Serotonin receptor agonist.

MeSH terms

Drug Repositioning
Humans
Levodopa
Macular Degeneration* / drug therapy
Metformin* / therapeutic use

Substances

PU-91
Levodopa
Metformin