In recent years, cancer has become a major concern in relation to human morbidity and mortality. Anticancer peptides (ACPs) are the bioactive peptide with antitumor activity and found in many organisms, including mammals, amphibians, insects, plants and microorganisms. ACPs have been suggested as promising agents for antitumor therapy due to their numerous advantages over traditional chemical agents such as low molecular masses, relatively simple structures, greater tumor selectivity, fewer adverse reactions, ease of absorption, a variety of routes of administration and low risk for inducing multi-drug resistance. Combining with the related research in our group, we summarized the mechanisms of ACPs to provide some directions for research and development of peptide-based anticancer drugs.
近年来癌症的发生率和死亡率呈现逐渐上升的趋势，是威胁人类生命的主要疾病之一。抗癌肽(Anticancer peptides，ACPs) 即具有抗肿瘤活性的生物活性肽，其广泛存在于多种生物体内，包括哺乳动物、两栖类动物、昆虫、植物和微生物等。抗癌肽在治疗肿瘤方面具有众多优势，如分子量低、结构简单、高抗癌活性、高选择性、较少的副作用、多种给药方式、不易引起多重耐药性等。文中结合本课题组相关工作，归纳了目前所发现的抗癌肽的作用机制，以期为新型肽类抗肿瘤药物的研发提供一定的方向。.
Keywords: anticancer peptides; membranolytic mechanism; non-membranolytic mechanisms; novel anti-tumor drug.