ANTICANCER DRUGS AND SIGNALING TARGETS - PRINCIPLES AND EXAMPLES

The intracellular signalling pathways that mediate the effects of growth factors and oncogenes on cell growth and transformation offer new targets for developing drugs for the treatment of cancer. This is a novel approach that presents new types of challenges to anticancer drug development. We have identified three classes of antiproliferative agents that have effects on intracellular signalling pathways. They are: helenalin and its analogues, antumor agents that act as modulators of Ca2+ signalling; wortmannin and its analogues, inhibitors of phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase; and gallium nitrate, a clinically used antitumor drug that is an inhibitor of a protein tyrosine phosphatase.