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Can you explain what you mean by subtyping and if/how it negates the usefulness of repurposing (if that’s what you meant to say). Wouldn’t subtyping complement a drug repurposing screen by allowing the scientist to test compounds against a subset of a disease?

And drug repurposing is also used for conditions with no known molecular basis like autism. You’re not suggesting its usefulness is limited in those cases right?

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Sure. There are studies like BEAT-AML which tests selected drugs’ responses on primary AML material. So, not on a cell-line but on true patient data. Combining this information with molecular measurements, you can actually say something about which drugs would be useful for a subset of the patients.

However, this is still not how you treat a patient. There are standard practices in the clinic. Usually the first line treatment is induction chemo with hypomethylating agents (except elderly who might not be eligible for such a treatment). Otherwise the options are still very limited, the “best” drug in the field so far is a drug called Venetoclax, but more things are coming up such as immuno-therapy etc. It’s a very complex domain, so drug repurposing on an AML cell line is not a wow moment for me.

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