Digitoxin and its analogs as novel cancer therapeutics

A growing body of evidence indicates that digitoxin cardiac glycoside is a promising anticancer agent when used at therapeutic concentrations. Digitoxin has a prolonged half-life and a well-established clinical profile. New scientific avenues have shown that manipulating the chemical structure of th...

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Published inExperimental hematology & oncology Vol. 1; no. 1; p. 4
Main Authors Elbaz, Hosam A, Stueckle, Todd A, Tse, William, Rojanasakul, Yon, Dinu, Cerasela Zoica
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London BioMed Central 05.04.2012
BioMed Central Ltd
BMC
Subjects
Cancer Research
Hematology
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Oncology
Review
Anticancer Mechanism
Cell Cycle Regulatory Protein
Digitoxin
Mitotic Catastrophe
Intracellular Sodium
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ISSN2162-3619
2162-3619
DOI10.1186/2162-3619-1-4

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Summary:A growing body of evidence indicates that digitoxin cardiac glycoside is a promising anticancer agent when used at therapeutic concentrations. Digitoxin has a prolonged half-life and a well-established clinical profile. New scientific avenues have shown that manipulating the chemical structure of the saccharide moiety of digitoxin leads to synthetic analogs with increased cytotoxic activity. However, the anticancer mechanism of digitoxin or synthetic analogs is still subject to study while concerns about digitoxin's cardiotoxicity preclude its clinical application in cancer therapeutics. This review focuses on digitoxin and its analogs, and their cytotoxicity against cancer cells. Moreover, a new perspective on the pharmacological aspects of digitoxin and its analogs is provided to emphasize new research directions for developing potent chemotherapeutic drugs.
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ISSN:2162-3619
2162-3619
DOI:10.1186/2162-3619-1-4