Protease, an advance therapeutic target in cancer

Abstract

Proteases are known to be associated with cancer development because of theiraptitude to degrade extracellular matrices, which enables invasion and metastasis. Recent studies have demonstrated that a variety of substrates are the maintarget of these important enzymes and favour all steps of tumour evolution. Anextensive number of reports have been available which shows a positivecorrelation between the activity of several proteases and tumour progressionsuggesting the usefulness of protease inhibitors as anticancer drugs. Nowadays, the cure for metastatic diseases is still a utopia and many efforts are focused onfinding new sensitive biomarkers for a precise diagnostic as well as prognosticand therapy. In this scenario, understanding of the proteases, how they areinvolved in early to the end point in cancer progression is needed. In this review, we will focus on the role of proteases as prognostic and therapeutic targets invarious types of cancers.