The role of cryo-electron microscopy in anticancer drug discovery and development

Abstract

Multidrug resistance in cancer treatment is one of the major causes of the increasing need for newer, potent, and safer anticancer drugs. The discovery and development of novel anticancer drugs are limited by the limitations of the older imaging techniques like X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy. Cryo-electron microscopy is a new imaging technology for developing a near-atomic level structural image of biological-macromolecules, small drug-molecules, and drug-receptor binding complexes. This review paper aims to study the role of cryo-EM in the discovery and development of newer anticancer drugs. It also highlights the impactful findings in the oncology field having significance in the anticancer drug discovery process. These include structural analysis of 80S ribosome, microtubule, DNA-PK holoenzyme, HER2-mAbs complex, CD20-antibody complex, human p97, etc. The observation suggests that further extensive analysis and studies of these structures can lead to a breakthrough in cancer research and the development of novel anticancer drugs.