What role do pharmaceuticals play in the treatment of Peyronie’s disease and is there a need for new emerging drugs?

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Finding novel medical treatment for Peyronie’s disease (PD) has suffered from similar limitations and difficulties as other fibrotic diseases.Areas covered: Underlying fibrosis, there is a vastly complex intertwining of several pathways. Focusing on a single target during antifibrotic drug development has not led to the development of many efficacious drugs, especially in PD. Inhibiting one cog in this large machinery usually leads to activation of compensatory mechanisms.Expert opinion: Novel strategies in drug discovery such as phenotypical drug screening and gene expression profiling technologies could provide a solution for this impasse.

KEYWORDS:

• Peyronie’s disease
• medical treatment
• phenotypical drug screening
• extracellular matrix
• macrophages
• myofibroblasts

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

A reviewer on this manuscript has disclosed that they are a consultant for Boston Scientific, Coloplast and Teleflex. All other peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.