LAUSR

Peptides have acquired increasing interest as promising therapeutics, particularly as anti-cancer alternatives during the recent years. They have been reported to demonstrate incredible anti-cancer potentials due to its low manufacturing cost, ease of synthesis and great specificity and selectivity. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is among the leading cause of cancer death globally, and the effectiveness of current liver treatment has turned out to be a critical issue in treating the disease efficiently. Hence, new interventions are being explored for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma. Anticancer peptides (ACPs) were firstly identified as part of the innate immune system of living organisms, demonstrating promising activity against infectious diseases. Differentiated beyond the traditional effort on endogenous human peptides, the discovery of peptide drugs has evolved to rely more on isolation from other natural sources or through medicinal chemistry approach. Up to the present time, pharmaceutical industry intends to conduct more clinical trials for development of peptides as alternative therapy since peptides possess numerous advantages such as high selectivity and efficacy against cancers over normal tissues, as well as broad spectrum of anticancer activity. In this review, we present an overview of the literature concerning peptide's physicochemical properties and describe the contemporary status of several anticancer peptides currently engaged in clinical trials for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.