Cancer Chemotherapy with Peptides and Peptidomimetics Drug and Peptide Based-Vaccines

A summary of the current status of the application of peptidomimetics in cancer therapeutics as an alternative to peptide drugs is provided. Only compounds that are used in therapy or at least under clinical trials are discussed, using inhibitors of farnesyltransferase, proteasome and matrix metalloproteinases as examples. The design and synthesis of peptidomimetics are most important because of the dominant position peptide and protein-protein interactions play in molecular recognition and signalling, especially in living systems. The design of peptidomimetics can be viewed from several different perspectives and peptidomimetics can be categorized in a number of different ways. Study of the vast literature would suggest that medicinal and organic chemists, who deal with peptide mimics, utilize these methods in many different ways. Conventional methods used to treat cancer, from non-specific chemotherapy to modern molecularly targeted drugs have generated limited results due to the complexity of the disease as well as lack of molecular classes that can be developed into treatments rapidly, easily and economically. Peptidomimetics that are easy to synthesize and optimize and has been studied in different oncology applications as great biologically amenable compounds and can be considered as a promising alternative molecular class for anticancer drug developments. Peptide can be utilized directly as a cytotoxic agent through various mechanisms or can act as a carrier of cytotoxic agents and radioisotopes by specifically targeting cancer cells. Peptide-based hormonal therapy has been extensively studied and utilized for the treatment of breast and prostate cancers. Tremendous amount of clinical data is currently available attesting to the efficiency of peptide-based cancer vaccines.