Current Breast Cancer Drug Used To Fight Fungal Infection In HIV Patients
The breast cancer drug tamoxifen has emerged as a potential treatment for a deadly fungal infection called Cryptococcus. Cryptococcus affects up to a million people every year, but it is particularly dangerous for patients already inflicted with HIV/AIDS. Tamoxifen’s candidacy as a potential treatment for Cryptococcus was revealed during a screening process of already approved drugs.
Tamoxifen already has FDA approval, making a repurposing effort easier and more affordable than creating a new drug. The overwhelming majority of those affected by Cryptococcus reside in sub-Saharan Africa, and have limited access to the necessary drugs to treat the fungal infection. Some experts believe that number to be as high as 90% of all HIV/AIDS-Cryptococcus cases.
Up to one fifth of HIV/AIDS patients infected with Cryptococcus die even when given specialized drugs and expensive treatments. That’s what prompted Damian Krysan’s research team to screen drugs that had already been approved for chemical agents that are known to kill Cryptococcus. Damian Krysan specializes in pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Rochester and believes that the sub-Sahara’s limited resources affect the mortality rate. He has performed research on Cryptococcus.
Tamoxifen hit many key benchmarks for the group. “It can be given orally to patients, which is what we needed. And Cryptococcus causes a brain infection essentially. And so we needed that drug to get to the brain. And tamoxifen actually crosses into the central nervous system very effectively and even accumulates to levels above what we see in the blood.”
Cryptococcus can trigger life threatening illnesses such as meningitis. “It currently kills on the order of three-quarters of a million people a year, primarily again in resource-limited regions with high rates of HIV/AIDS,” said Krysan.
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