El-Qassas Jihad, Abd El-Atti Mahmoud, El-Badri Nagwa
Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Zagazig University, Zagazig, 44519, Egypt.
Center of Excellence for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine, Zewail City of Science and Technology, 6th of October City, Giza, 12578, Egypt.
Bioresour Bioprocess. 2024 Oct 3;11(1):93. doi: 10.1186/s40643-024-00805-0.
Despite breakthroughs in the development of cancer diagnosis and therapy, most current therapeutic approaches lack precise specificity and sensitivity, resulting in damage to healthy cells. Selective delivery of anti-cancer agents is thus an important goal of cancer therapy. Scorpion venom (SV) and/or body parts have been used since early civilizations for medicinal purposes, and in cultures, SV is still applied to the treatment of several diseases including cancer. SV contains numerous active micro and macromolecules with diverse pharmacological effects. These include potent anti-microbial, anti-viral, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer properties. This review focuses on the recent advances of SV-derived peptides as promising anti-cancer agents and their diagnostic and therapeutic potential applications in cancers such as glioma, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and colon cancer. Well-characterized SV-derived peptides are thus needed to serve as potent and selective adjuvant therapy for cancer, to significantly enhance the patients' survival and wellbeing.
尽管癌症诊断和治疗取得了突破，但目前大多数治疗方法缺乏精确的特异性和敏感性，会对健康细胞造成损害。因此，抗癌药物的选择性递送是癌症治疗的一个重要目标。自早期文明以来，蝎毒（SV）及其身体部位就被用于医疗目的，在一些文化中，SV仍被用于治疗包括癌症在内的多种疾病。SV含有许多具有多种药理作用的活性微分子和大分子。这些作用包括强大的抗菌、抗病毒、抗炎和抗癌特性。本文综述了源自SV的肽作为有前景的抗癌药物的最新进展，以及它们在胶质瘤、乳腺癌、前列腺癌和结肠癌等癌症中的诊断和治疗潜在应用。因此，需要充分表征源自SV的肽，以作为有效的选择性癌症辅助治疗，显著提高患者的生存率和健康水平。
