Liu XC, Gao JM, Liu S, Liu L, Wang JR, Qu XJ, Cai B, Wang SL. Targeting apoptosis is the major battle field for killing cancers.
World J Transl Med 2015;
4:69-77. [DOI:
10.5528/wjtm.v4.i3.69]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2015] [Revised: 04/27/2015] [Accepted: 08/31/2015] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Targeting apoptosis is one of the major strategies for cancer therapy. Essentially, most of the conventional cancer therapeutic drugs that are in the clinical use induce apoptosis and in part necrosis of malignant cells and therefore prevent cancer progression and metastasis. Although these cytotoxic anticancer drugs are important weapons for killing cancers, their toxic side effects limited their application. The molecularly targeted therapeutics that are based on the deeper understanding of the defects in the apoptotic signaling in cancers are emerging and have shown promising anticancer activity in selectively killing cancers but not normal cells. The examples of molecular targets that are under exploration for cancer therapy include the cell surface receptors such as TNFR family death receptors, the intrinsic Bcl-2 family members and some other intracellular molecules like p53, MDM2, IAP, and Smac. The advance in the high-throughput bio-technologies has greatly accelerated the progress of cancer drug discovery.
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