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From antimicrobial to anticancer peptides. A review
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are part of the innate immune defense mechanism of many organisms. Although AMPs have been essentially studied and developed as potential alternatives for fighting infectious diseases, their use as anticancer peptides (ACPs) in cancer therapy either alone or in combinat...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2013
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3787199/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24101917 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2013.00294 |
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author | Gaspar, Diana Veiga, A. Salomé Castanho, Miguel A. R. B. |
author_facet | Gaspar, Diana Veiga, A. Salomé Castanho, Miguel A. R. B. |
author_sort | Gaspar, Diana |
collection | PubMed |
description | Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are part of the innate immune defense mechanism of many organisms. Although AMPs have been essentially studied and developed as potential alternatives for fighting infectious diseases, their use as anticancer peptides (ACPs) in cancer therapy either alone or in combination with other conventional drugs has been regarded as a therapeutic strategy to explore. As human cancer remains a cause of high morbidity and mortality worldwide, an urgent need of new, selective, and more efficient drugs is evident. Even though ACPs are expected to be selective toward tumor cells without impairing the normal body physiological functions, the development of a selective ACP has been a challenge. It is not yet possible to predict antitumor activity based on ACPs structures. ACPs are unique molecules when compared to the actual chemotherapeutic arsenal available for cancer treatment and display a variety of modes of action which in some types of cancer seem to co-exist. Regardless the debate surrounding the definition of structure-activity relationships for ACPs, great effort has been invested in ACP design and the challenge of improving effective killing of tumor cells remains. As detailed studies on ACPs mechanisms of action are crucial for optimizing drug development, in this review we provide an overview of the literature concerning peptides' structure, modes of action, selectivity, and efficacy and also summarize some of the many ACPs studied and/or developed for targeting different solid and hematologic malignancies with special emphasis on the first group. Strategies described for drug development and for increasing peptide selectivity toward specific cells while reducing toxicity are also discussed. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3787199 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-37871992013-10-07 From antimicrobial to anticancer peptides. A review Gaspar, Diana Veiga, A. Salomé Castanho, Miguel A. R. B. Front Microbiol Microbiology Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are part of the innate immune defense mechanism of many organisms. Although AMPs have been essentially studied and developed as potential alternatives for fighting infectious diseases, their use as anticancer peptides (ACPs) in cancer therapy either alone or in combination with other conventional drugs has been regarded as a therapeutic strategy to explore. As human cancer remains a cause of high morbidity and mortality worldwide, an urgent need of new, selective, and more efficient drugs is evident. Even though ACPs are expected to be selective toward tumor cells without impairing the normal body physiological functions, the development of a selective ACP has been a challenge. It is not yet possible to predict antitumor activity based on ACPs structures. ACPs are unique molecules when compared to the actual chemotherapeutic arsenal available for cancer treatment and display a variety of modes of action which in some types of cancer seem to co-exist. Regardless the debate surrounding the definition of structure-activity relationships for ACPs, great effort has been invested in ACP design and the challenge of improving effective killing of tumor cells remains. As detailed studies on ACPs mechanisms of action are crucial for optimizing drug development, in this review we provide an overview of the literature concerning peptides' structure, modes of action, selectivity, and efficacy and also summarize some of the many ACPs studied and/or developed for targeting different solid and hematologic malignancies with special emphasis on the first group. Strategies described for drug development and for increasing peptide selectivity toward specific cells while reducing toxicity are also discussed. Frontiers Media S.A. 2013-10-01 /pmc/articles/PMC3787199/ /pubmed/24101917 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2013.00294 Text en Copyright © 2013 Gaspar, Veiga and Castanho. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Microbiology Gaspar, Diana Veiga, A. Salomé Castanho, Miguel A. R. B. From antimicrobial to anticancer peptides. A review |
title | From antimicrobial to anticancer peptides. A review |
title_full | From antimicrobial to anticancer peptides. A review |
title_fullStr | From antimicrobial to anticancer peptides. A review |
title_full_unstemmed | From antimicrobial to anticancer peptides. A review |
title_short | From antimicrobial to anticancer peptides. A review |
title_sort | from antimicrobial to anticancer peptides. a review |
topic | Microbiology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3787199/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24101917 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2013.00294 |
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