Anti cancer agents from microbes

Abstract

Microbial diversity has a pivotal role in discovering antibiotics and anticancer agents. Anticancer drug discovery has seen a lot of technological development in the last few years. Screening for cancer drugs has moved forward from the traditional cell-based screening that looks for antiproliferative effects to specific approach to scan for molecules that can target prominent proteins or pathways in cancer. These employed technologies will help to find molecules selective for cancer cells while avoiding normal cells, thus improving efficacy and selectivity in cancer therapy. Microbial diversity has a lot to offer in terms of drug discovery. Among the different groups of microorganisms, members of actinomycetes have provided more number of anticancer compounds and other bioactive metabolites. Symbiotic microorganisms associated with higher marine organisms are also identified as a potential source of novel anticancer lead compounds. Metagenomic approaches to screen uncultivable microorganisms also offer a novel source for the invention of new therapeutic metabolites.