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Review
. 2021 Mar 14;13(6):1292.
doi: 10.3390/cancers13061292.

Targeting BCL-2 in Cancer: Advances, Challenges, and Perspectives

Shirin Hafezi  1 , Mohamed Rahmani  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Targeting BCL-2 in Cancer: Advances, Challenges, and Perspectives

Shirin Hafezi et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

The major form of cell death in normal as well as malignant cells is apoptosis, which is a programmed process highly regulated by the BCL-2 family of proteins. This includes the antiapoptotic proteins (BCL-2, BCL-XL, MCL-1, BCLW, and BFL-1) and the proapoptotic proteins, which can be divided into two groups: the effectors (BAX, BAK, and BOK) and the BH3-only proteins (BIM, BAD, NOXA, PUMA, BID, BIK, HRK). Notably, the BCL-2 antiapoptotic proteins are often overexpressed in malignant cells. While this offers survival advantages to malignant cells and strengthens their drug resistance capacity, it also offers opportunities for novel targeted therapies that selectively kill such cells. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the extensive preclinical and clinical studies targeting BCL-2 proteins with various BCL-2 proteins inhibitors with emphasis on venetoclax as a single agent, as well as in combination with other therapeutic agents. This review also discusses recent advances, challenges focusing on drug resistance, and future perspectives for effective targeting the Bcl-2 family of proteins in cancer.

Keywords: AML; BCL-2; CLL; cancer; resistance; therapy; venetoclax.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflict of interest to disclose.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Model illustrating the mechanism(s) of mitochondrial apoptosis.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Specificity of various types of BCl-2 inhibitors and induction of apoptosis. Targeting the Bcl-2 pro-survival proteins by various inhibitors with different specificity (ABT-737/ABT-263, obatoclax, or venetoclax) leads to BAX/BAK activation and pores formation through which cytochrome c is released into the cytosol culminating in apoptosis induction.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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