Therapeutic peptides for cancer therapy. Part I - peptide inhibitors of signal transduction cascades

Background: Therapeutic peptides have great potential as anticancer agents owing to their ease of rational design and target specificity. However, their utility in vivo is limited by low stability and poor tumor penetration. Objective: The authors review the development of peptide inhibitors with potential for cancer therapy. Peptides that inhibit signal transduction cascades are discussed. Methods: The authors searched Medline for articles concerning the development of therapeutic peptides and their delivery. Results/conclusion: Given our current knowledge of protein sequences, structures and interaction interfaces, therapeutic peptides that inhibit interactions of interest are easily designed. These peptides are advantageous because they are highly specific for the interaction of interest, and they are much more easily developed than small molecule inhibitors of the same interactions. The main hurdle to application of peptides for cancer therapy is their poor pharmacokinetic and biodistribution parameters. Therefore, successful development of peptide delivery vectors could potentially make possible the use of this new and very promising class of anticancer agents.