The use of anticancer and cell-penetrating peptides in the treatment of cancer

Cancer is considered as one of the leading causes of death globally. Conventional methods for cancer treatment, such as chemotherapy has been limited their use due to lack of tumor specificity and high drug resistance. Thus, there is a need to develop new therapeutic drugs. Peptides are promising agents for cancer treatment and have attracted the attention of scientists because of some factors such as small size, convenient synthesis, high activity and specificity and biological diversity. In the field of cancer treatment, antimicrobial peptides with anticancer properties and cell-penetrating peptides have been used in the recent years. The current study was carried out to summarize findings from anticancer and cell-penetrating peptides for the treatment of cancer. The results of the current study showed that antimicrobial peptides with anticancer properties act against cancer cells and tumors through membrane and non-membrane mechanisms. Conjugated cell-penetrating peptides are also considered as therapeutic agents by overcoming the drug resistance as an effective mechanism in the cancer treatment. In addition, anticancer and cell penetrating peptides due to some factors such as low toxicity, mode of action and ability to penetrate the cell membrane could be suggested as attractive candidates for cancer treatment. However, further studies are needed to understand the mechanism of action of these therapeutic agents.