Anti-Cancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry (Formerly Current Medicinal Chemistry - Anti-Cancer Agents) - Volume 10, Issue 8, 2010

Multidrug resistance has been felt to be one of the mechanisms by which chemotherapy drugs develop resistance, and hence, failure in cancer drug therapy. Several investigations through the years have been undertaken to identify the genes involved in modulating multidrug resistance. Several drug-resistant proteins and genes have been since discovered, including variants in genes that encode for different drug metab Read More

There is wide interpatient variability in drug response and toxicity to standard doses of most anticancer medications. Genetic polymorphisms in genes encoding metabolic enzymes, receptors and drug transporters targeted by anticancer medications are often found, in part, to be responsible for the observed variability. Approximately 80% of all sequence variations residing in genes is in the form of single nucleotide polymorph Read More

Angiogenesis inhibitors have a major role in the treatment of varying cancers today. While originally thought to be independent of resistance, increasing data suggests varying mechanisms that bring about drug resistance, either intrinsically or through adaptation. The role of vascular endothelial growth factor single nucleotide polymorphisms (VEGF SNPs) in terms of therapeutic response and toxicity has increasingly b Read More

Membrane transporters play a role in determining the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of small molecule anticancer drugs and mediating chemosensitivity and resistance of tumor cells to these drugs. Our understanding of the influence of these transporters on the pharmacokinetics, clinical effectiveness and tolerability has considerably increased in the last decade. We reviewed the interaction of th Read More

Some genetic polymorphisms of human ABC transporter genes are reportedly related to the risk of certain diseases and patients' responses to medication. Human ABCC11 functions as an ATP-dependent efflux pump for amphipathic anions. One nonsynonymous SNP 538G>A (Gly180Arg) has been found to greatly affect the function and stability of de novo synthesized ABCC11 (Arg180) variant protein. The SNP variant lacki Read More

The discovery of the multidrug transporter P-glycoprotein (Pgp) over 35 years ago in drug resistant cells prompted several decades of work attempting to overcome drug resistance by inhibition of drug efflux. Despite convincing laboratory data showing that drug transport can be inhibited in vitro, efforts to translate this discovery to the clinic have not succeeded. Since overexpression of Pgp and related transporter Read More

The antiproliferative and proapoptotic effects of pomegranate extract (PE), as correlated with its prooxidant activity, were studied. PE exerted greater antiproliferative effects towards cancer, than to normal, cells, isolated from the human oral cavity. In cell-free systems, PE generated hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in cell culture media and in phosphate buffered saline, with prooxidant activity increasing from acidic to alkali Read More

We sought to determine whether administration of glycerol guaiacolate at an optimal biological dose inhibits human breast cancer cell growth. Human breast cancer MCF-7 and ZR-75-1 cells were treated with glycerol guaiacolate and the therapeutic efficacy and biological activity of this drug was investigated on breast cancer cell growth. MCF-7 cells were injected into the mammary fat pad of overectamized female athy Read More