Current Cancer Drug Targets - Volume 9, Issue 8, 2009

Some cytokines (interleukin (IL)-2, IL-11, transforming growth factor(TGF)β) stimulate, while others (IL-12, IL-18, Interferons (IFNs)) inhibit breast cancer proliferation and/or invasion. So far IL-2, IFNα, IFNβ and occasionally IFNγ, IL-6, IL-12 have been used for the treatment of advanced breast cancer either to induce or increase hormone sensitivity and/or to stimulate cellular immunity. Only two long term pilot studies suggest th Read More

Membrane ion channels participate in cancerous processes such as proliferation, migration and invasion, which contribute to metastasis. Increasing evidence indicates that voltage-dependent K+ (Kv) channels are involved in the proliferation of many types of cells, including tumor cells. Kv channels have generated immense interest as a promising tool for developing new anti-tumor therapies. Therefore, the identification of Read More

The growth arrest and DNA damage-inducible 45 (Gadd45) proteins are a group of critical signal transducers that are involved in regulations of many cellular functions. Accumulated data indicate that all three Gadd45 proteins (i.e., Gadd45α, Gadd45β, and Gadd45γ) play essential roles in connecting an upstream sensor module, the transcription Nuclear Factor-κB (NF-κB), to a transcriptional regulating module, mitogen-act Read More

Epidermal growth factor inhibition (EGFR) is emerging as an important treatment modality in several epithelial malignancies, including head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Despite some notable successes, less than 20% of patients respond to EGFR inhibition due to intrinsic and acquired resistance. Since EGFR inhibition is already used for lung, colorectal, breast and pancreas cancers in addition to HNSCC, overco Read More

The inability of the host immune system to control tumor growth appears to result from dominant mechanisms of immune suppression that prevent the immune system from effectively responding in a way that consistently results in tumor rejection. Among the many possible mediators of tumoral immune escape, the immunoregulatory enzyme, indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), has recently gained considerable attent Read More

Poly(ADP-ribose) glycohydrolase (Parg) is the main enzyme for degradation of poly(ADP-ribose) by splitting ribose-ribose bonds. Parg-deficient (Parg+/- and Parg-/-) mouse ES cell lines have been established by disrupting both alleles of Parg exon 1 through gene-targeting. A transcript encoding a full length isoform of Parg was eliminated and only low amounts of Parg isoforms were detected in Parg-/- embryonic stem ( Read More

Histone proteins are subject to a diverse range of post-translational modifications which, along with DNA methylation, play a major role in controlling gene expression, cell division, survival and differentiation. Alterations in these chromatin modifications are thought to contribute to important human diseases including cancer. Inhibition of the enzymes that introduce and remove these chromatin modifications is provi Read More

The requirements for a cell surface molecule to be suitable as an antibody-drug conjugate target are stringent. The notion that antibodies-directed toward targets on the surface of malignant cells could be used for drug delivery is not new. The history of antibody-drug conjugates has been marked by hurdles identified and overcome. Early conjugates used mouse antibodies, drugs that were either not sufficiently potent, wer Read More