Current Cancer Drug Targets - Volume 4, Issue 7, 2004

Angiogenesis is characterized by the development of new vasculature from pre-existing vessels and plays a central role in physiological processes such as embryogenesis, wound healing and female reproductive function, as well as pathophysiologic events including cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and diabetic retinopathy. The growth and metastasis of tumors is critically dependent upon angiogenesis. Although targeting angiogenes Read More

Angiotensin-I converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-Is) are commonly used as safe antihypertensive agents, and it has recently been suggested that they decrease the risk of cancer development. Recent studies have revealed that the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) is involved in the development of many types of tumor. Angiotensin-II (AT-II) has many biological effects, including neo-vascularization, which plays a pivotal role in tum Read More

Killing of tumor cells by anticancer therapies commonly used in the treatment of cancer, e.g. chemotherapy, γ-irradiation, immunotherapy or suicide gene therapy, is predominantly mediated by triggering apoptosis, the cell's intrinsic death program. Accordingly, defects in apoptosis pathways can result in cancer resistance to current treatment approaches. Understanding the molecular mechanisms that regulate cell Read More

In cancer chemotherapy, it is necessary to design an agent that suppresses or inhibits the targets that influence cell growth and apoptosis. We focus on the apoptotic pathway via mitochondria in this article. In this pathway, c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), one of the stress activated protein kinases, is predominantly activated by apoptotic stimuli. JNK activity is inhibited by the binding of glutathione S-transferase P1-1 (GST P1 Read More

Proline-directed protein kinase FA (PDPK FA) was originally identified as a phosphatase activating factor (FA) but has subsequently been characterized as a multisubstrate / multifunctional PDPK possibly associated with human cancers. In recent years, the immunohistochemical study revealed that PDPK FA was highly expressed in tumor mass and preferentially overexpressed in the invasive lesions of the resected tissu Read More

The alphaviruses Semliki Forest virus (SFV) and Sindbis virus have recently been developed as prototype anti-cancer agents. These are RNA-containing enveloped viruses that code for only 9 proteins of unique sequence. The standard recombinant SFV vector system consists of suicide particles containing recombinant RNA. In addition, alphavirus vectors capable of limited multiplication in the host are also being develop Read More

The diverse clinical presentations of cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL) have been unified by immunologic characterization of the malignant T cells as an expansion of clonal, CD4+ inducer T cells with affinity for epidermal association with Langerhans cells (LC), an immature member of the dendritic cell (DC) family. Features of the life cycle of CTCL have recently been elucidated through development of an in vitro cell culture Read More