Anti-Cancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry (Formerly Current Medicinal Chemistry - Anti-Cancer Agents) - Volume 9, Issue 1, 2009

Compounds that bind in the minor groove of DNA have found use in the experimental treatment of cancer and certain infectious diseases. Furthermore, agents which target and can recognize discrete sequences of DNA have the potential to offer selective therapies by modulating the activity of specific transcription factors or genes. For this reason, a number of sequence-selective DNA binding agents have been evalua Read More

Protein kinase B (PKB or Akt) is a central component of the PI3K - PKB - mTOR signalling cascade and is firmly established as an attractive target for pharmacological intervention in cancer. A number of small molecule inhibitors with well-defined, direct molecular interactions with PKB are now known, covering a range of mechanisms from ATP- or substrate-competitive inhibition, through allosteric modulation of the kinase activi Read More

Sumoylation has been implicated in a variety of cancers, suggesting that sumoylation manipulation could be one approach for regulating tumorgenesis. Ubc9 exerts a central function for the sumoylation pathway, interacting with almost all the partners required for sumoylation. The high-resolution structure available for Ubc9 as well as the recent determination of more interacting partner complex structures makes r Read More

Gliomas of astrocytic origin show only a limited chemotherapy response. Chemoresistance is most pronounced in glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and most malignant glioma, with median survival times not much longer than one year. Failure of chemotherapy partly relies on protective mechanisms against the commonly used DNA alkylating agents, but also on the constitutive activation of the pro-survival PI3K Read More

Tyrosine kinases (TKs) are attractive targets for cancer therapy, as quite often their abnormal signaling has been linked with tumor development and growth. Constitutive activated TKs stimulate multiple signaling pathways responsible for DNA repair, apoptosis, and cell proliferation. During the last few years, thorough analysis of the mechanism underlying tyrosine kinase's activity led to novel cancer therapy using TKs blockers. Read More

Xanthones have been isolated from several natural sources, mainly belonging in Guttiferae and Gentianaceae families as secondary plant metabolites and many of them are endowed with diverse pharmacological properties. We have focused in the study of cytotoxic fused xanthone derivatives, having in mind that some furano- and pyranoxanthone natural products are particularly interesting, in terms of cytotoxic po Read More

Over the last few decades, epigenetic tumor changes characterized by promoter hypermethylation and histone modifications have become a topic of intense research. Of particular interest is the potential reversibility of these processes that has led to the development of epigenetic anticancer drugs such as demethylating agents and histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDAC-I). Besides single agent clinical activity in both hematologi Read More

Taxol is one of the most effective anti-cancer drugs ever developed. The natural source of taxol is the inner bark of several Taxus species, but it accumulates at a very low concentration and with a prohibitively high cost of extraction. Another problem is that the use of inner bark for taxol production implies the destruction of yew trees. For all these reasons, the growing demand for taxol greatly exceeds the supply that can Read More