Recent Patent-Based Perspective on Diagnostic and Therapeutic Interventions in Malignant Mesothelioma: Is Drug Repositioning Knocking on the Door?

Abstract

Background: Malignant Mesothelioma (MM), an orphan but aggressive malignancy of the mesothelial membrane, is a fatal tumour. Global epidemic related to malignant pleural mesothelioma is on the rise, so there is a need to explore novel biomarkers and ingenious therapeutic approaches to stalk this silent killer.

Objective: The main aim of the present review is to provide a consolidated overview of the recent active patents related to diagnosis and therapy in the field of MM that will impact its future management.

Methods: A search of existing literature was conducted from a PubMed database search. Recent patent information was fetched out from online free open-access databases. For related clinical trials, www.clinicaltrial.gov was searched.

Results: Patent search data showed 72 active patents related to diagnosis and therapy in the field of MM, which we classified into eight broad categories. Of these, maximum 17 patents were attributed to immunotherapy and 13 were attributed to "Drug Repositioning" and "Biological / synthetic" based candidates. Relatively low number of patents accounts for gene signature (7), epigenetics (3) and microRNA (2) based diagnosis and therapy. Remaining 17 patents were distributed amongst virotherapy and various miscellaneous categories. Furthermore, our clinical trial based investigation revealed the futuristic impact of listed patents in MM patient management.

Conclusion: This review article has provided an overview of patent based advancement in the field of MM, which might become apex in the clinical settings in future. Interestingly, immunotherapy and "drug repositioning" based therapy seems to be the front-runners in the race to provide relief.

Keywords: Malignant mesothelioma; clinical trials; drug repositioning.; epigenetics; immunotherapy; microRNA; recent patent; virotherapy.