Cytochrome c: Using Biological Insight toward Engineering an Optimized Anticancer Biodrug.

ABSTRACT: The heme protein cytochrome c (Cyt c) plays pivotal roles in cellular life and death processes. In the respiratory chain of mitochondria, it serves as an electron transfer protein, contributing to the proliferation of healthy cells. In the cell cytoplasm, it activates intrinsic apoptosis to terminate damaged cells. Insight into these mechanisms and the associated physicochemical properties and biomolecular interactions of Cyt c informs on the anticancer therapeutic potential of the protein, especially in its ability to subvert the current limitations of small molecule-based chemotherapy. In this review, we explore the development of Cyt c as an anticancer drug by identifying cancer types that would be receptive to the cytotoxicity of the protein and factors that can be finetuned to enhance

SUBMITTER: Delinois LJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9380692 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature