Abstract
Often, even the most effective antineoplastic drugs currently used in clinic do not efficiently allow complete healing due to the related toxicity. The reason for the toxicity lies in the lack of selectivity for cancer cells of the vast majority of anticancer agents. Thus, the need for new potent anticancer compounds characterized by a better toxicological profile is compelling. Lectins belong to a particular class of non-immunogenic glycoproteins and have the characteristics to selectively bind specific sugar sequences on the surface of cells. This property is exploited to exclusively bind cancer cells and exert antitumor activity through the induction of different forms of regulated cell death and the inhibition of cancer cell proliferation. Thanks to the extraordinary biodiversity, marine environments represent a unique source of active natural compounds with anticancer potential. Several marine and freshwater organisms, ranging from the simplest alga to the most complex vertebrate, are amazingly enriched in these proteins. Remarkably, all studies gathered in this review show the impressive anticancer effect of each studied marine lectin combined with irrelevant toxicity in vitro and in vivo and pave the way to design clinical trials to assess the real antineoplastic potential of these promising proteins. It provides a concise and precise description of the experimental results, their interpretation as well as the experimental conclusions that can be drawn.
Highlights
Water covers 71% of the surface of our planet and hosts vibrant biodiversity
Another replication-deficient adenovirus was modified to encode the gene of Haliotis discus discus sialic acid-binding lectin (Ad.FLAG-HddSBL)
Annexin V exposure—a hallmark of the early stages of regulated cell death—the upregulation of tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 (TNFR1), and the complete absence of caspase activation recall necroptosis, but further studies are needed to assess if apoptosis, regulated necrosis, or both events trigger Cliona varians lectin (CVL)-mediated cell death
Summary
Water covers 71% of the surface of our planet and hosts vibrant biodiversity. More than 2 million different species inhabit the seawater, many of which still await discovery [1]. The World Register of Marine Species checked and classified only 232,297 different species [2] This number could be considered modest, but it mirrors how late oceans have started to be studied compared to land environments. All the pathways involved in the acquisition of these capabilities make tumor cells unique and ideally can be exploited to obtain a therapy that selectively kills cancer cells. An effective strategy to identify and selectively hit cancer cells could be aiming at the phenotypic changes that come along with the malignancy transformation, such as the glycosylation pattern at the cell surface. Lectins are non-immunogenic glycoproteins that bind unique carbohydrates residues on cell surfaces They represent an attractive tool to detect and kill cancer cells [17].
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