Abstract
Neurodegenerative diseases are a vast collection of neurological disorders
with various clinical and pathological manifestations that impact particular subsets of
neurons in distinct functional anatomic systems; they begin for unexplained reasons
and advance inexorably. Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson's disease, Amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis, Huntington’s disease, Friedreich ataxia, and Spinal muscular atrophy are the
major neurodegenerative diseases. The prevalence and incidence of these diseases rise
dramatically with age; thus, the number of cases is expected to increase for the
foreseeable future as life spans in many countries continue to increase. Although there
are several medicines currently approved for managing neurodegenerative disorders, a
large majority of them only help with associated symptoms. The limitations of
pharmacotherapy in these disorders have led to an urgent shift towards the
development of novel compounds, interventions, and methods that target shared
features across the spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases. Drug repurposing is a
novel strategy where existing drugs that have already been approved as safe in patients
for the management of certain diseases are redeployed to treat other, unindicated
diseases. In this chapter, we have covered the current therapeutic options and drugs that
can be repurposed or have the potential to be repurposed for the management of
various neurodegenerative diseases.
Keywords: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Friedreich ataxia, Huntington’s disease, Spinal muscular atrophy.