Digitoxin and Its Analogs As Novel Cancer Therapeutics

Overview

Journal Exp Hematol Oncol

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Hematology

Date 2012 Dec 6

PMID 23210930

Citations 43

Authors

Hosam A Elbaz

Todd A Stueckle

William Tse

Yon Rojanasakul

Cerasela Zoica Dinu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

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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