Interesting, if this is holds up. I’m not smart enough to understand the mechanism. But it makes me wonder, what’s the point of designing drugs? SSRIs were developed on the faulty theory that depression was caused by low serotonin and that increasing serotonin in the brain would cure depression. It didn’t. In some percentage of people it attenuates it at varying levels, but even when it does work, it’s not by increasing serotonin levels in the brain. It’s clear that there’s some other mechanism at work.
It seems like many “wonder drug” discoveries turn out like this. A drug is created for disorder A. A lot of people take it. People start noticing other unexpected effects for disorders B-Z.
So why bother designing drugs? We already have a huge cache of approved drugs where the safety profile is known. We could look at drugs with good safety profiles and see what else they might be good for just by luck.
It seems like many “wonder drug” discoveries turn out like this. A drug is created for disorder A. A lot of people take it. People start noticing other unexpected effects for disorders B-Z.
So why bother designing drugs? We already have a huge cache of approved drugs where the safety profile is known. We could look at drugs with good safety profiles and see what else they might be good for just by luck.