Abstract
Cancer is a multifaceted global health issue and one of the leading causes of death worldwide. In recent years, medical science has achieved great advances in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Despite the numerous advantages of conventional cancer therapies, there are major drawbacks including severe side effects, toxicities, and drug resistance. Therefore, the urgency of developing new drugs with low cytotoxicity and treatment resistance is increasing. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have attracted attention as a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of various cancers, targeting tumor cells with less toxicity to normal tissues. In this review, we present the structure, biological function, and underlying mechanisms of AMPs. The recent experimental studies and clinical trials on anticancer peptides in different cancer types as well as the challenges of their clinical application have also been discussed.
Highlights
Cancer treatment is still one of the biggest challenges in the public health system globally, with a high mortality rate [1, 2]
Intravesical administration of polybiaMPI/fluorinated polyethylenimine (F-PEI) nanoparticles in mice with orthotopic bladder tumors resulted in a prolonged lifetime within four weeks and repressed tumor growth
Poor pharmacokinetics described as short half-life, fast elimination, instability, enzymatic degradation, poor distribution by binding to serum proteins, and poor GI absorption reduced the chance of clinical translation of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and drug development pipelines [127]
Summary
Cancer treatment is still one of the biggest challenges in the public health system globally, with a high mortality rate [1, 2]. The cytotoxic effects of numerous insect AMPs on different cancerous cell lines, such as breast cancer, lung cancer, melanoma, leukemia, and lymphoma, have been reported [13] These cationic low-molecular-weight AMPs that are involved in both antimicrobial and anticancer activities are termed anticancer peptides (ACPs) [14]. According to the amino acid composition, AMPs are divided into two major types: linear molecules with an a-helical structure without cysteine (e.g., cecropin, magainin) and cysteinecontaining polypeptides with disulfide bridge(s) such as insect defensin [22] In another classification, mammals’ AMPs are categorized into cathelicidins and defensins according to their structure and biological properties [23, 24].
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