Repositioning “old” drugs for new causes: identifying new inhibitors of prostate cancer cell migration and invasion

The majority of prostate cancer (PCa) deaths occur due to the metastatic spread of tumor cells to distant organs. Currently, there is a lack of effective therapies once tumor cells have spread outside the prostate. It is therefore imperative to rapidly develop therapeutics to inhibit the metastatic spread of tumor cells. Gain of cell motility and invasive properties is the first step of metastasis and by inhibiting motility one can potentially inhibit metastasis. Using the drug repositioning strategy, we developed a cell-based multi-parameter primary screening assay to identify drugs that inhibit the migratory and invasive properties of metastatic PC-3 PCa cells. Following the completion of the primary screening assay, 33 drugs were identified from an FDA approved drug library that either inhibited migration or were cytotoxic to the PC-3 cells. Based on the data obtained from the subsequent validation studies, mitoxantrone hydrochloride, simvastatin, fluvastatin and vandetanib were identified as strong candidates that can inhibit both the migration and invasion of PC-3 cells without significantly affecting cell viability. By employing the drug repositioning strategy instead of a de novo drug discovery and development strategy, the identified drug candidates have the potential to be rapidly translated into the clinic for the management of men with aggressive forms of PCa.