The multitargeted drug ivermectin: from an antiparasitic agent to a repositioned cancer drug
A 2018 review that gathered the cell-culture and animal experiments on ivermectin and argued it was ready for cancer trials; those trials began five years later and have not reported.
Overview
The review summarises in vitro and in vivo experiments in which ivermectin acted on multidrug resistance protein, Akt/mTOR and WNT-TCF signalling, purinergic receptors, PAK1, the SIN3A and SIN3B epigenetic regulators, RNA helicase and chloride channels, and on cancer stem-like cells (Juarez review 2018). It argues that the concentrations used are reachable in people on the basis of pharmacokinetic studies in healthy and parasite-infected volunteers, and that this could allow a rapid move into trials (Juarez review 2018).
- Laboratory evidence only: cell lines and animal models across several cancer types.
- Argues that anticancer concentrations are clinically reachable, on pharmacokinetic grounds, not on any patient data.
This is the paper the online claims usually trace back to. It is a call for trials, not evidence that the drug works in people, and the trials it called for are still running.
- No human efficacy data existed when it was written and none has been published since.
- The concentration argument has not been tested in a cancer patient.
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