Chemistry in Cancer Chemotherapy

20th World Conference on Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Drug Design

The principles governing drug targeting in anti-cancer chemotherapy to achieve a tumor-specific targeting are the enzyme responsible for prodrug activation should uniquely be present in the tumor cell. Although there is much evidence of pathways involving enzymes that are aberrantly expressed in tumors, these approaches have found varying success because the differences between healthy and tumor tissues are not normally consistent across different species, individuals, or even tumors. Hypoxia is a common and unique property of cells in solid tumors, and it is therefore a potential mechanism for tumor-specific prodrug activation. The availability of oxygen electrodes has allowed the accurate measurement of oxygen levels in human tumors, which are highly heterogeneous. Polymer-directed enzyme prodrug therapy is a two-step antitumor approach that uses a combination of a polymeric prodrug and a polymer-enzyme conjugate to generate selective cytotoxicity. Folic acid has become a useful ligand for targeted cancer therapies as it binds to the tumor-linked (tumor-associated) antigen which is known as the folate receptor (FR).  This is a great opportunity to enlighten ourselves more about cancer drug therapy by being the part of 20th scientific meet on Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Drug Design which is in Dubai, UAE during September 03-05, 2018, under the enclosed title Cancer Research in Medicinal Chemistry

The role of chemistry in cancer chemotherapy justifies the rationale for the use of conventional cytotoxic antitumor drugs based on the theory that rapidly proliferating and dividing cells are more sensitive to these compounds than the normal cells. The binding properties of DNA ligands can be rationalized on the basis of their structural and electronic complementarity with the functional groups present in the major and minor grooves of particular DNA sequences which are mainly recognized by specific hydrogen bonds. In the antisense approach, the mRNA translation is interfered, thereby inhibiting the translation of the information at the ribosome, while in the antigene therapy, a direct binding to the DNA double strand inhibits transcription. Plants, microorganisms and more recently marine organisms of various types have traditionally represented a main source of cytotoxic anticancer agents since the beginning of chemotherapy. Nanotechnology is a field of applied science that covers a broad range of topics in which matter is controlled on a scale of 1–1,000 nm. The use of nanovectors for the targeted delivery of antitumor compounds and imaging contrast agents, aiming at increasing the efficacy per dose of therapeutic or imaging contrast formulations is one of its application.

Chemoprevention can be stated as an attempt that involves use of natural or synthetic chemical agents to avoid cancer. The most promising targets for cancer chemoprevention so far discovered are ligands for nuclear receptors, anti-anflammatory agents, chromatin modifiers, and processes leading to the generation of free radicals. The nuclear receptors superfamily are transcription factors that regulate cell differentiation and proliferation in specific organs that are important for carcinogenesis. Free radicals are regenerated by normal physiological processes, including aerobic metabolism and inflammatory responses to eliminate invading pathogenic microorganisms. A chronic cell injury initiates an inflammatory response and the activation of cytoquines or receptor molecules to recruit mast cells and leukocytes to the damaged place. Ergothioneine is a component of white button mushrooms that is considered as an antioxidant with cancer chemopreventive properties.

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