Abstract

TARGETING CANCER CELLS: A NEW THERAPY TO CURE CANCER PATIENTS

Kuldeep Singh Patel, Vivek Asati, Neerupma Dhiman*, Jagdish Chandra Rathi

Abstract

Cancer is a multifactorial disease and is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Emerging evidence indicates that impaired cellular energy metabolism is the defining characteristic of nearly all cancers regardless of cellular or tissue origin. In contrast to normal cells, which derive most of their usable energy from oxidative phosphorylation, most cancer cells become heavily dependent on substrate level phosphorylation to meet energy demands. Evidence is reviewed supporting a general hypothesis that genomic instability and essentially all hallmarks of cancer, including aerobic glycolysis (Warburg effect), can be linked to impaired mitochondrial function and energy metabolism. A view of cancer as primarily a metabolic disease will impact approaches to cancer management and prevention. The contributing factors include specific genetic background, chronic exposure to various environmental stresses and improper diet. All these risk factors lead to the accumulation of molecular changes or mutations in some important proteins in cells which contributes to the initiation of carcinogenesis. Chemotherapy is an effective treatment against cancer but undesirable chemotherapy reactions and the development of resistance to drugs which results in multi-drug resistance (MDR) are the major obstacles in cancer chemotherapy.

Keywords: Multi-drug resistance, genes mutations, Microarray-based Mrna, Noncoding RNAs, targeted delivery.