ReviewPost screenDrug repositioning approaches to parasitic diseases: a medicinal chemistry perspective

•Neglected tropical diseases affect approximately one billion people worldwide.•Most of the available drugs have limited efficacy and cause serious adverse effects.•Drug repositioning has been applied to overcome the lack of novel compounds.•Several drugs have been successfully repurposed to neglected tropical diseases.•Recent screening campaigns have identified promising drug repositioning candidates.

Identifying new indications for clinically useful drugs is a worthwhile approach for neglected tropical diseases. The number of successful repurposing cases in the field is growing as not-for-profit organizations, in association with academia and pharmaceutical companies, enable screening campaigns for the identification of new repositioning candidates. Current programs have delivered encouraging results as the use of state-of-the-art technologies, such as genomic and structural biology tools, and high-throughput screening platforms have become increasingly common in infectious disease research. Drug repositioning has played a key part in improving the lives of those suffering from these conditions, as evidenced by successful precedents and recent studies on preeminent parasitic disorders.