With the increasing proportion of cancer in the world year by year, cancer has become the main cause of death and a major public health problem in the world. Anticancer peptides can destroy the structure of tumor cell membrane or inhibit the proliferation and migration of cancer cells and the formation of tumor blood vessels, almost no hemolysis and no damage to normal human cells, which has become a hot spot in the research of new anti-tumor drugs. Because of the need to constantly find new therapeutic drugs, especially those that can escape drug resistance, inhibit metastasis and have no other important side effects, anticancer peptides have become one of the goals of new research. Anticancer peptides are a new type of anticancer drugs with small molecular peptides, which kill cancer cells by destroying the structure of tumor cell membrane or inhibiting the proliferation and migration of cancer cells and the formation of tumor blood vessels, but have low toxicity to normal cells. It is a hot spot in the research of new anti-tumor drugs at present.
The sources of anticancer peptides
- Antimicrobial peptides derived from antineoplastic peptides
Antimicrobial peptides are members of the innate immunity of many organisms and participate in the innate immune process of the body. These active peptides have broad-spectrum and high bactericidal activity against bacteria. Some antimicrobial peptides have obvious killing effects on fungi, protozoa and viruses, and can also promote wound healing. It has an aggressive effect on cancer cells and solid tumors without destroying normal cells. With the continuous in-depth study of antimicrobial peptides, it has been found that some cationic antimicrobial peptides have unique anticancer ability and have a strong killing effect on many cancer cells. - Polypeptide hormones
Polypeptide hormone antineoplastic peptides come from the endocrine regulatory system of human body, which has a certain physiological regulation function. If it is used in the treatment of cancer, it will generally have good biocompatibility. In mammals, the natriuretic peptide family (NPS) includes atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP), and the D-type natriuretic peptide (DNP), which will also be found in the venom of the green tree cobra. - Polypeptide toxins
At present, different components have been isolated and purified from snake venom for tumor treatment. Snake venom toxin plays an anti-tumor role through three components (free element, cytotoxin and apoptosis-inducing component). These three components are not completely isolated from each other, and sometimes a toxin extract plays an antineoplastic effect in two ways. - Vascular endostatin
The number of tumor cells in solid tumors is highly consistent with the number of capillary endothelial cells in the tumor. Capillaries can promote the proliferation of tumor cells. After the solid tumor grows to 2 to 3 mm, if there is no new vascular support, the growth of the tumor will stop. Tumor neovascularization plays an important role in tumor growth and metastasis.
Conclusion
Cancer kills millions of people every year. As a traditional means of cancer treatment, chemotherapy has some defects, such as low selectivity, great side effects, and multi-drug resistance and so on. Compared with traditional chemotherapeutic drugs, peptides as anti-cancer compounds have high selectivity and low toxicity. The modification of anticancer peptides and the combination of anticancer peptides with traditional drugs can give better play to the effect of anticancer peptides, which will become an important direction of the development of anticancer peptides.
References
- McDonnell, L. A., Corthals, G. L., Willems, S. M., van Remoortere, A., van Zeijl, R. J., & Deelder, A. M. (2010). Peptide and protein imaging mass spectrometry in cancer research. Journal of proteomics, 73(10), 1921-1944.
- Hernandez, V. (2019). Developing a Technique Using Peptide and Dye Synthesis for Cancer Research.
