Interactions of melatonin with various signaling pathways: implications for cancer therapy

Abstract Melatonin is a neuro-hormone with conserved roles in evolution. Initially synthetized as an antioxidant molecule, it has gained prominence as a key molecule in the regulation of the circadian rhythm. Melatonin exerts its effect by binding to cytoplasmic and intra-nuclear receptors, and is able to regulate the expression of key mediators of different signaling pathways. This ability has led scholars to investigate the role of melatonin in reversing the process of carcinogenesis, a process in which many signaling pathways are involved, and regulating these pathways may be of clinical significance. In this review, the role of melatonin in regulating multiple signaling pathways with important roles in cancer progression is discussed, and evidence regarding the beneficence of targeting malignancies with this approach is presented

DNA damage response and breast cancer development: Possible therapeutic applications of ATR, ATM, PARP, BRCA1 inhibition

Breast cancer is the most common and significant cancers in females regarding the loss of life quality. Similar to other cancers, one of the etiologic factors in breast cancer is DNA damage. A plethora of molecules are responsible for sensing DNA damage and mediating actions which lead to DNA repair, senescence, cell cycle arrest and if damage is unbearable to apoptosis. In each of these, aberrations leading to unrepaired damage was resulted in uncontrolled proliferation and cancer. Another cellular function is autophagy defined as a process eliminating of unnecessary proteins in stress cases involved in pathogenesis of cancer. Knowing their role in cancer, scholars have tried to develop strategies in order to target DDR and autophagy. Further, the interactions of DDR and autophagy plus their regulatory role on each other have been focused simultaneously. The present review study has aimed to illustrate the importance of DDR and autophagy in breast cancer according to the related studies and uncover the relation between DDR and autophagy and its significance in breast cancer therapy.Depto. de Inmunología, Oftalmología y ORLFac. de MedicinaTRUEpu