Bioactive Peptides in Cancer: Therapeutic Use and Delivery Strategies

نویسندگان

  • Paola Stiuso
  • Michele Caraglia
  • Giuseppe De Rosa
  • Antonio Giordano
چکیده

Human cancer is one of the most important causes of death in western and industrialized countries. In advanced stages, therapeutic opportunities are still limited due to the difficulty to target specifically only cancer cells sparing healthy ones. Cancer often has specific molecular alterations of signal transduction pathway or of other molecules linked to the proliferation and wide spreading of tumour cells. Several peptides have been isolated from natural products and/or physiological sources and several of them have biological activity on cancer cells. This special issue addresses the role of these natural peptides and of their synthetic derivatives in cancer therapy, alone or in combination with other anticancer agents. One of the most interesting peptides of natural origin is Urotensin-II (U-II) originally isolated from the goby uroph-ysis and subsequently identified in humans. It binds a specific receptor (UTR) that mediates a very strong contraction of vessel muscle cells. In particular, since the modulation of the U-II system offers a great potential for therapeutic strategies related to the treatment of several diseases, like cardiovascu-lar diseases, the research of selective and potent ligands at UTR is more fascinating. Finally, it was recently reported by several groups a potential role of U-II and its receptor in the regulation of cancer biology. The paper by F. Merlino et al. discusses peptide and nonpeptide U-II and UTR structures that have led to a more rational and detectable design and synthesis of new molecules with high affinity for UTR. Other peptides with anticancer properties are peptide hormones acting on the pituitary axis in the treatment of endocrinolog-ical cancers such as breast and prostate cancer and peptides acting on neuroendocrine receptors such as somatostatin and BN/GRP (bombesin/gastrin-releasing peptide). The paper by J. Thundimadathil discussed the role of luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) agonists and antagonists and on the possible action of somatostatin analogues as radioisotope or cytotoxic drug carriers in the treatment of somatostatin receptor expressing tumours. Finally, the possible use of peptides in cancer vaccine or anti-angiogenic strategies is also described. Food is another important source for proteins and pep-tides with potential anticancer activity. Bovine milk is an important component of the human diet, and it contains several proteins formed by two major families: caseins (insoluble) and whey proteins (soluble). The latter are í µí»½-lactoglobulin, í µí»¼-lactalbumin, bovine serum albumin, and lactoferrin while the predominant forms of the caseins in ruminant milk are í µí»¼S1, í µí»¼S2, í …

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عنوان ژورنال:

دوره 2013  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2013