Anti-radiation drugs for radiotherapy: Research advances / 国际药学研究杂志

ABSTRACT

Anti-radiation drugs can prevent humans from radiation injury, reduce the clinical symptoms of radiation sickness and promote early recovery. With the wide application of radiotherapy in the treatment of malignant tumor patients, anti-radiation drugs for radiotherapy have become more and more important. Tradiational anti-radiation drugs include free radical scavengers, superoxide dismutase(SOD) and SOD mimetics, nitroxides, natural antioxidants and cytokines. These drugs have the common disadvantages of serious side effects, narrow therapeutic time window, poor stability and high cost. Therefore, it is particularly important and urgent to discover anti-radiation drugs which are highly efficient, lowly toxic, inexpensive and easy to use. In recent years, with the deepening understanding of cell signaling pathways, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) and apoptosis regulators have gradually become a hot spot for anti-radiation drugs research. This review summarizes the advantages and disadvantages as well as the future trends of anti-radiation drugs with proven or potential usefulness in radiotherapy.