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Targeting Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) for Cancer Therapy

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Handbook of Oxidative Stress in Cancer: Therapeutic Aspects

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Abstract

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are the highly reactive molecules that play vital roles in cancer progression as well as in the regulation of important cellular pathways. Interestingly, ROS also have beneficial roles such as it enhance the anti-tumorigenic signaling and increasing the cancer cell death by oxidative damage. ROS can be quenched by the antioxidant system, but these are not much effective at the time of the high level of ROS production, hence causing several pathological conditions such as tumor cell promotion and progression which affects the signaling pathways. It was observed that tumor cells generate a high level of ROS that results in increased metabolic rate, hypoxia, and mutation in the gene. Cancer cells also maintain a significant level of antioxidant enzymes that neutralize the effect of elevated ROS, indicating an intricate equilibrium of ROS is required for cancer cell survival and function. Further increase in ROS level may lead to programmed cell death (PCD). Elevated ROS levels generated by various metabolic pathways can work as Trojan horse for killing cancer cells. However, to precisely kill the cancer cells only signaling pathway that regulates diverse functions in cancer cells needs to be elucidated. This review focuses on ROS generation in tumor cells, their role in cancer biology, and the molecular mechanism of therapeutics based on altering the ROS level to treat cancer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Medical Biotechnology, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana, India

    Hari Mohan,  Vandna & Subodh Soni

  2. School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, Faculty of Health and Medicine, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia

    Shafiq Syed

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  1. Hari Mohan
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  2. Vandna
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  3. Subodh Soni
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  4. Shafiq Syed
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Correspondence to Hari Mohan .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept Biochem & Biophysics, C-Block, University of Kalyani, Kalyani, West Bengal, India

    Sajal Chakraborti

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Texas, El Paso, Texas, USA

    Mahesh Narayan

  2. School of Biotechnology, KIIT Deemed to be University, Institute of Eminence, Bhubaneswar, India

    Gopal C. Kundu

  3. Department of Biotechnology and Medical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Rourkela-, Odisha, India

    Subhankar Paul

  4. Institute of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, SavitribaiPhule Pune University, Pune, Maharastra, India

    Tuli Dey

  5. Department of Animal Biotechnology, Lala lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar, Haryana, India

    Minakshi Prasad Ph.D

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Mohan, H., Vandna, Soni, S., Syed, S. (2022). Targeting Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) for Cancer Therapy. In: Chakraborti, S. (eds) Handbook of Oxidative Stress in Cancer: Therapeutic Aspects. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1247-3_273-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1247-3_273-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-981-16-1247-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-16-1247-3

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