Aysegul Hanikoglu, Hakan Ozben, Ferhat Hanikoglu and Tomris Ozben* Pages 2118 - 2132 ( 15 )
Elevated Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) generated by the conventional cancer therapies and the endogenous production of ROS have been observed in various types of cancers. In contrast to the harmful effects of oxidative stress in different pathologies other than cancer, ROS can speed anti-tumorigenic signaling and cause apoptosis of tumor cells via oxidative stress as demonstrated in several studies. The primary actions of antioxidants in cells are to provide a redox balance between reduction-oxidation reactions. Antioxidants in tumor cells can scavenge excess ROS, causing resistance to ROS induced apoptosis. Various chemotherapeutic drugs, in their clinical use, have evoked drug resistance and serious side effects. Consequently, drugs having single-targets are not able to provide an effective cancer therapy. Recently, developed hybrid anticancer drugs promise great therapeutic advantages due to their capacity to overcome the limitations encountered with conventional chemotherapeutic agents. Hybrid compounds have advantages in comparison to the single cancer drugs which have usually low solubility, adverse side effects, and drug resistance. This review addresses two important treatments strategies in cancer therapy: oxidative stress induced apoptosis and hybrid anticancer drugs.
Cancer, oxidative stress, antioxidants, redox, apoptosis, hybrid compounds.
Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Akdeniz University, 07070 Antalya, Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Hand and Microsurgery Unit, Koc University School of Medicine, Istanbul, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Biochemistry, Biruni University, Istanbul, Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Akdeniz University, 07070 Antalya