The anticancer mechanism of human antimicrobial peptide LL-37

Abstract

Human antimicrobial peptides LL-37 have a variety of medicinal uses. It has been portrayed that this peptide has robust tumoricidal action in a range of malignancies, particularly ovarian cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, malignant melanoma, and squamous cell carcinoma of the skin. It exhibits substantial anticancer action against a range of cancers, including colon cancer, gastric cancer, hematologic malignancy, and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), in comparison. In this review, we explored in depth the anticancer mechanism of action of LL-37 in numerous sorts of cancer. We have shown how LL-37 impedes colon cancer by eliciting caspase-independent apoptosis. LL-37, in addition, has been noticed to boost tumor-suppressive bone morphogenetic protein signaling in gastric cancer cells via restricting the proteasome, which has been previously reported. In this research, we investigated how DNA methylation interferes with the activity of the human CAMP (Cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide gene) promoter and, as a result, acts as a tumor inhibitor in mouth squamous cell carcinoma. Additionally, how LL-37 inhibits cancer cell development in hematologic malignancy has been explored through caspase-independent but Ca2+/calpain- and AIF-dependent processes.