New uses for an old remedy: Digoxin as a potential treatment for steatohepatitis and other disorders

Abstract

Repurposing of the widely available and relatively cheap generic cardiac gly-coside digoxin for non-cardiac indications could have a wide-ranging impact on the global burden of several diseases. Over the past several years, there have been significant advances in the study of digoxin pharmacology and its potential non-cardiac clinical applications, including anti-inflammatory, antineoplastic, metabolic, and antimicrobial use. Digoxin holds promise in the treatment of gastrointestinal disease, including nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and alcohol-associated steatohepatitis as well as in obesity, cancer, and treatment of viral infections, among other conditions. In this review, we provide a summary of the clinical uses of digoxin to date and discuss recent research on its emerging applications.

Keywords: Alcohol-associated steatohepatitis; Cardiac glycosides; Digoxin; Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis; Oxidative stress; Sterile inflammation.