New Promising Horizons for the Antitumor Activity of Onconase |Biomedgrid

Cancers represent, together with cardiovascular diseases, the most important cause of death in the industrialized countries. Fortunately, many cancer types have been successfully counteracted by following different strategies, comprising chemio- and/or radio-therapies, new drugs design and immuno-therapy. The success of these therapies, however, often depends on early diagnosis, that is very difficult to get for some tumors, especially the ones affecting internal organs, such as lung, ovary, liver, pancreas. Therefore, the curability of these tumors remains low and, consequently, the related deaths high. In this scenario, although rarely representing the first choice, protein therapy could be a fruitful approach to counteract incurable tumors. RNases, which are able to attack many RNA types, can become tools to block an uncontrolled cell replication and, consequently, cancer development. In particular, the amphibian RNase ranpirnase, commonly called onconase (ONC), showed in the recent past to be active against many tumors either in vitro or in vivo. Nevertheless, its renal toxicity, although reversible, has limited its use in therapy. However, the most recent results obtained in vitro with ONC are presented here, and possible therapeutic strategies based on ONC self- or hetero-oligomerization are as well suggested to overcome renal toxicity.