Emergence of Cardiac Glycosides as Potential Drugs: Current and Future Scope for Cancer Therapeutics
Ranjith Kumavath,
Sayan Paul,
Honey Pavithran,
Manash K. Paul,
Preetam Ghosh,
Debmalya Barh,
Vasco Azevedo
Affiliations
Ranjith Kumavath
Department of Genomic Science, School of Biological Sciences, Central University of Kerala, Tejaswini Hills, Periya (P.O) Kasaragod, Kerala 671320, India
Sayan Paul
Department of Biotechnology, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli, Tamilnadu 627012, India
Honey Pavithran
Department of Genomic Science, School of Biological Sciences, Central University of Kerala, Tejaswini Hills, Periya (P.O) Kasaragod, Kerala 671320, India
Manash K. Paul
Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Preetam Ghosh
Department of Computer Science, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA
Debmalya Barh
Institute of Integrative Omics and Applied Biotechnology (IIOAB), Nonakuri, Purba Medinipur 721172, India
Vasco Azevedo
Laboratório de Genética Celular e Molecular, Departamento de Genetica, Ecologia e Evolucao, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais 31270-001, Brazil
Cardiac glycosides are natural sterols and constitute a group of secondary metabolites isolated from plants and animals. These cardiotonic agents are well recognized and accepted in the treatment of various cardiac diseases as they can increase the rate of cardiac contractions by acting on the cellular sodium potassium ATPase pump. However, a growing number of recent efforts were focused on exploring the antitumor and antiviral potential of these compounds. Several reports suggest their antitumor properties and hence, today cardiac glycosides (CG) represent the most diversified naturally derived compounds strongly recommended for the treatment of various cancers. Mutated or dysregulated transcription factors have also gained prominence as potential therapeutic targets that can be selectively targeted. Thus, we have explored the recent advances in CGs mediated cancer scope and have considered various signaling pathways, molecular aberration, transcription factors (TFs), and oncogenic genes to highlight potential therapeutic targets in cancer management.
