Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms of Cytotoxic Activity of Vanadium Compounds against Cancer Cells

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 25; no. 7; p. 1757
• Main Authors: Kowalski, Szymon, Wyrzykowski, Dariusz, Inkielewicz-Stępniak, Iwona
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 10.04.2020; MDPI
• Subjects: Animals; Antineoplastic Agents - chemistry; Antineoplastic Agents - pharmacology; Antitumor activity; Apoptosis; Binding; Binding sites; Biomolecules; Breast cancer; cancer cells; Cancer therapies; Cell cycle; Cell Cycle Checkpoints - drug effects; Cell death; Cell division; cellular mechanisms; Chemotherapy; Cytotoxicity; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; DNA Damage - drug effects; Enzymes; Gene expression; Humans; Inorganic salts; Kinases; Ligands; Medical treatment; Metal ions; Metals; Mitochondria - drug effects; Mitochondria - metabolism; molecular mechanisms; Ovarian cancer; Oxidative stress; Oxidative Stress - drug effects; Reactive Oxygen Species - metabolism; Review; Salts; Structure-Activity Relationship; Structure-function relationships; Tumor cell lines; Vanadium; Vanadium compounds; Vanadium Compounds - chemistry; Vanadium Compounds - pharmacology; molecular mechanisms; cancer cells; cellular mechanisms; cytotoxicity; vanadium compounds
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules25071757

Discovering that metals are essential for the structure and function of biomolecules has given a completely new perspective on the role of metal ions in living organisms. Nowadays, the design and synthesis of new metal-based compounds, as well as metal ion binding components, for the treatment of human diseases is one of the main aims of bioinorganic chemistry. One of the areas in vanadium-based compound research is their potential anticancer activity. In this review, we summarize recent molecular and cellular mechanisms in the cytotoxic activity of many different synthetic vanadium complexes as well as inorganic salts. Such mechanisms shall include DNA binding, oxidative stress, cell cycle regulation and programed cell death. We focus mainly on cellular studies involving many type of cancer cell lines trying to highlight some new significant advances.