Affiliations 

  • 1 School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia
  • 2 Division of Biological Science, Graduate School of Science & Technology, Nara Institute of Science & Technology (NAIST), Ikoma, Nara 630-0101, Japan
Future Oncol, 2020 Oct;16(28):2235-2249.
PMID: 32715755 DOI: 10.2217/fon-2020-0389

Abstract

The B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL-2) anti-apoptotic proteins have become attractive therapeutic targets especially with the development of BH3-mimetics which selectively target these proteins. However, it is important to note that expression levels of the anti-apoptotic proteins and their relevance in inhibiting apoptosis varies between different cell lineages. This addiction to certain anti-apoptotic proteins for survival, can be determined with various techniques and targeted effectively with selective BH3-mimetics. Studies have highlighted that anti-apoptotic proteins BCL-XL and MCL-1 are crucial for cervical cancer cell survival. Co-targeting BCL-XL and MCL-1 with selective BH3-mimetics yielded promising results in cervical cancer cell lines. In this review, we focus on the expression levels of the anti-apoptotic proteins in cervical cancer tissues and how to possibly target them with BH3-mimetics.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.