Chemotherapy drugs are long being used to treat cancer either as single drug
or in combination with other treatment strategies. However, the current problem with
treatment is the development of chemo-resistance properties of cancer cells that causes
relapses at the later stages of the treatment. It is therefore necessary to design and
develop new drugs or modify existing treatment strategies. Cancer cells show abnormal
cell growth and adopt metabolic pathways that are different from normal cells. There
are also links between metabolic pathways and chemo-resistance development in
cancer cells. This indicates the importance of integration of knowledge on the
metabolic pathways of cancer cells prior to new drug design and development for
cancer treatment. In this review, we discuss the metabolic pathways associated with
chemo-resistance development and focus on existing or new drugs targeting these
pathways.
Keywords: Antimetabolites, Autophagy, Chemotherapy drugs, Chemoresistance,
Drug design and Development, Metabolic pathways, Regulatory proteins,
Signalling molecules, Systems biology.
