G-quadruplex, Friend or Foe: The Role of the G-quartet in Anticancer Strategies

Overview

Journal Trends Mol Med

Specialties General Medicine
Molecular Biology

Date 2020 May 30

PMID 32467069

Citations 95

Authors

Josue Carvalho

Jean-Louis Mergny

Gilmar F Salgado

Joao A Queiroz

Carla Cruz

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The clinical applicability of G-quadruplexes (G4s) as anticancer drugs is currently being evaluated. Several G4 ligands and aptamers are undergoing clinical trials following the notable examples of quarfloxin and AS1411, respectively. In this review, we summarize the latest achievements and breakthroughs in the use of G4 nucleic acids as both therapeutic tools ('friends', as healing anticancer drugs) and targets ('foes', within the harmful cancer cell), particularly using aptamers and quadruplex-targeted ligands, respectively. We explore the recent research on synthetic G4 ligands toward the discovery of anticancer therapeutics and their mechanism of action. Additionally, we highlight recent advances in chemical and structural biology that enable the design of specific G4 aptamers to be used as novel anticancer agents.

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