| Literature DB >> 32467069 |
Josué Carvalho1, Jean-Louis Mergny2, Gilmar F Salgado3, João A Queiroz1, Carla Cruz4.
Abstract
The clinical applicability of G-quadruplexes (G4s) as anticancer drugs is currently being evaluated. Several G4 ligands and aptamers are undergoing clinical trials following the notable examples of quarfloxin and AS1411, respectively. In this review, we summarize the latest achievements and breakthroughs in the use of G4 nucleic acids as both therapeutic tools ('friends', as healing anticancer drugs) and targets ('foes', within the harmful cancer cell), particularly using aptamers and quadruplex-targeted ligands, respectively. We explore the recent research on synthetic G4 ligands toward the discovery of anticancer therapeutics and their mechanism of action. Additionally, we highlight recent advances in chemical and structural biology that enable the design of specific G4 aptamers to be used as novel anticancer agents.Entities:
Keywords: G-quadruplex; anticancer strategy; aptamers; cell regulation; drug discovery; ligands
Mesh：
Substances：
Year: 2020 PMID： 32467069 DOI： 10.1016/j.molmed.2020.05.002
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Trends Mol Med ISSN： 1471-4914 Impact factor: 11.951