Digging into biochemical and signal transduction of old drugs: xanthines and their association to cancer

Document Type : Review articles

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Pharmaceutical Chemistry Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Egyptian Russian University, Badr City, Cairo 11829, Egypt

Abstract

The arena of anticancer drug research has identified xanthine derivatives as intriguing molecules with diverse antimutagenic capabilities against a variety of cancer disorders. Xanthines are purine bases, which are known to act as non-selective and multitargeting agents of several cellular proteins. Natural xanthine analogues were reported to inhibit adenosine and phosphodiesterase subfamilies. Additionally, the effect toward several biochemical and signal transduction changes were studied to observe the efficiency of xanthine derivatives as anticancer agents and/or adjuvants. Several xanthine-based compounds were synthesized and introduced to obtain more selective and potent agents, which are demonstrated as research tools and possible therapeutic agents. The present minireview article illustrates the potential searching for efficacious rule of xanthine derivatives regarding several malignancies covering leukemia, melanoma, colon, CNS, ovarian, renal, prostate, non-small cell lung carcinoma and breast cancers. Further, an attempt to explain the biochemical effect of xanthines toward the complex signaling network of tumor cells was highlighted

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