Title:Natural DNA Intercalators as Promising Therapeutics for Cancer and Infectious Diseases
Volume: 20
Issue: 1
关键词:
嵌入剂，药物，DNA结合，抗癌剂，抗微生物剂，烷基化化合物。
摘要: Cancer and infectious diseases are one of the greatest challenges of modern medicine. An
unhealthy lifestyle, the improper use of drugs, or their abuse are conducive to the increase of morbidity
and mortality caused by these diseases. The imperfections of drugs currently used in therapy
for these diseases and the increasing problem of drug resistance have forced a search for new substances
with therapeutic potential. Throughout history, plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms
have been rich sources of biologically active compounds. Even today, despite the development of
chemistry and the introduction of many synthetic chemotherapeutics, a substantial part of the new
compounds being tested for treatment are still of natural origin. Natural compounds exhibit a great
diversity of chemical structures, and thus possess diverse mechanisms of action and molecular targets.
Nucleic acids seem to be a good molecular target for substances with anticancer potential in
particular, but they may also be a target for antimicrobial compounds. There are many types of interactions
of small-molecule ligands with DNA. This publication focuses on the intercalation process.
Intercalators are compounds that usually have planar aromatic moieties and can insert themselves
between adjacent base pairs in the DNA helix. These types of interactions change the structure of
DNA, leading to various types of disorders in the functioning of cells and the cell cycle. This article
presents the most promising intercalators of natural origin, which have aroused interest in recent
years due to their therapeutic potential.
