BIOENERGETICS, THE FOUNDATION OF THE FUTURE OF CANCER THERAPEUTICS A QUANTUM LEAP IN MAKING

Abstract

Deep understanding of the governing laws of bioenergetics of the living organism and dissection of their aberrancies, could enable us to design new treatment strategies for a vast array of disorders including malignancy and could potentially lead to major breakthroughs and cure of these devastating disorders. The modern treatment strategies currently aim at identification of a pathway considered to be of unique significance in the growth and survival of a specific cell or tissue and its diseased counterpart and targeting that pathway in different ways, ranging from small molecule inhibitors, to monoclonal antibodies, at times conjugated with a toxin against a signal transduction element. In the last seventy years since the time nitrogen mustard was introduced into the treatment armamentarium of malignant disorders and until several years ago that targeted therapy became the main shift in our approach to such disorders and as of the year 2012, we have continued to ignore these fundamental principles and that has led to our failure in bringing them into treatment designs, even though we have become armed with more sophisticated technology of genomics, epigenomics, microRNA and their profiling in both normal and pathological conditions. Our main handicap has continued to be lack of deep understanding of the homeostasis of the normal state and our premature rush towards solving the puzzles of the abnormal state without such basic knowledge and understanding.