EFAVIRENZ, A WELL KNOWN ANTIVIRAL DRUG, MIGHT BE A NEW OPTION IN THE TREATMENT OF CANCER
Keywords:
Efavirenz, Endogenous reverse transcriptase, Apoptosis, AnticancerAbstract
Cancer is a potentially fatal disease, where cells abnormally divide which hurts the tissues. The incidences of cancer are increasing worldwide and become one of the leading causes of death. A numbers of anticancer agents are available in the market or under clinical trials used for its treatment, but unfortunately, none of them is able to treat cancer. Thus, the exploration of novel mechanistic pathways of existing molecules may help to develop more effective anticancer agents. Efavirenz, a well-known non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, used in the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected patients with tolerable side effects. Newly emerging data revealed that efavirenz has the potential to induce toxic effects against a wide range of cancer cells by altering various cancer pathways. Thus, this existing antiretroviral drug with already known safety profiles could be rapidly utilized for the treatment of various cancers.
Keywords: Efavirenz, Endogenous reverse transcriptase, Apoptosis, Anticancer
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References
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