Introducing PROTAC Therapy—a Novel Tailored Approach to Lung Cancer Treatment

Drug resistance in cancer is a major challenge to properly treating malignancy. Therapies aimed at proteins involved in cancer development may become less effective due to acquired resistance to medications, often resulting from mutations as well as heightened expression of the targeted proteins. Posttranslational modifications (PTMs) like as phosphorylation, methylation, ubiquitination, and acetylation are crucial for regulating protein expression levels. PROTACs are engineered to selectively degrade a specific protein of interest (POI) by ubiquitination, resulting in a regulated decrease in the POI’s expression. PROTACs show great potential in targeting hitherto untargetable proteins, such as various transcription factors. PROTACs enhance antitumor immune therapy by specifically modifying certain proteins. Although molecular therapies have advanced, lung cancer remains a major contributor to cancer-related mortality. The management of those with lung cancer is now limited by a lack of targeted therapy choices and the development of acquired drug resistance. Using the intracellular ubiquitin-proteasome system for directed protein breakdown might enhance individualized treatment for lung cancer patients. This study explores the rationale for using PROTAC therapy as an innovative specific therapy and the current advancements in PROTAC development for lung tumors.

Keywords:

Cancer , Drug resistance , Targeted therapy , PROTAC therapy