Abstract

Peptide-based cancer therapy has been of great interest due to the unique advantages of peptides, such as the low molecular weight, the ability to specifically target tumor cells, easy availability and low toxicity in normal tissues. Therefore, identify and synthesize novel peptides could provide a promising choice to patients with cancer. The antitumor second generation peptide CIGB-552 has been developed as a candidate to cancer treatment. Proteomic and genomic studies have identified the intracellular protein COMMD1 as the specific target of CIGB-552. This peptide penetrates inside tumor cells to induce the proteasomal degradation of RelA, causing the termination of NF-kB signaling. The antitumor activity of CIGB-552 has been validated in vitro in different human cancer cell lines, as well as in vivo in syngeneic and xenograft tumor mouse models and in cancer-bearing dogs. The aim of this review is to present and discuss the experimental data about CIGB-552, its mechanism of action and its therapeutic potential in human chronic diseases. This peptide is already in phase I of clinical trials as antineoplastic drug, but also has possible application to other inflammatory and metabolic conditions.