Past, Present, and Future of Targeting Ras for Cancer Therapies

Title:Past, Present, and Future of Targeting Ras for Cancer Therapies

Volume: 16 Issue: 5

Author(s): Zhi Tan and Shuxing Zhang

Affiliation:

Keywords: Cancer therapy, Drug discovery, GTPase, Mutant KRas, Small molecule inhibitor, Targeting Ras.

Abstract: For decades, mutant Ras (mut-Ras) proteins have been identified as drivers of multiple cancers including pancreatic, lung, and colon cancers. However, targeting this oncogene has been challenging and no Ras inhibitors are on the market to date. Lately several candidates targeting the downstream pathways of Ras signaling, including PI3K and Raf, were approved for cancer treatment. However, they do not present promising therapeutic effects on patients harboring Ras mutations. Recently, a variety of compounds have been reported to impair the activity of Ras, and these exciting discoveries reignite the hope for development of novel drugs targeting mut-Ras. In this article, we will review the progress made in this field and the current state-of-the-art technologies to develop Ras inhibitors. Also we will discuss the future direction of targeting Ras.

Cite this article as:

Tan Zhi and Zhang Shuxing, Past, Present, and Future of Targeting Ras for Cancer Therapies, Mini-Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry 2016; 16 (5) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1389557515666151001154111