Bacterial proteins and peptides in cancer therapy

Abstract

Cancer is one of the most deadly diseases worldwide. In the last three decades many efforts have been made focused on understanding how cancer grows and responds to drugs. The dominant drug-development paradigm has been the “one drug, one target.” Based on that, the two main targeted therapies developed to combat cancer include the use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies. Development of drug resistance and side effects represent the major limiting factors for their use in cancer treatment. Nowadays, a new paradigm for cancer drug discovery is emerging wherein multi-targeted approaches gain ground in cancer therapy. Therefore, to overcome resistance to therapy, it is clear that a new generation of drugs is urgently needed. Here, regarding the concept of multi-targeted therapy, we discuss the challenges of using bacterial proteins and peptides as a new generation of effective anti-cancer drugs.

Keywords: :

• cancer
• monoclonal antibodies
• tyrosine kinase inhibitors
• therapeutic peptide/proteins
• bacterial proteins
• azurin

10.4161/bioe.29266

Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest

No potential conflict of interest was disclosed.

Acknowledgments

N.B. acknowledges a Postdoctoral Fellowship from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal. Research in the A.M. Fialho lab was supported by FCT (Grant PTDC/EBB/BIO/100326/2008).