About this Research Topic
Our genome is continually under threat from exogenous and endogenous DNA damaging agents. If the DNA is left unrepaired, this can lead to genomic instability. DNA repair pathways maintain genomic stability, preventing deleterious mutations that may lead to cancer. However, genomic instability is a hallmark of cancers and, as a tumor develops, genetic streamlining results in dysregulation of DNA repair pathways and selects for cancer cells that have enhanced genomic instability, enabling adaptability to their environment. The use of precision or personalized medicine to gain a molecular understanding of an individual tumor's profile enables the selection of therapeutic approaches tailored to each tumor profile. Specific targeting of the dysregulated/dependent DNA repair pathways in cancer cells to induce cell death (alone or in combination with current therapeutics) is the goal of many new precision medicine therapeutics.
Chemotherapy and radiation therapy remain front line treatment options for many cancers, often acting by inducing DNA damage and ultimately resulting in cell death. This Research Topic will focus on novel and recent advances in the development, molecular understanding, or novel applications of new or current cancer therapeutics targeting DNA repair pathways. In this Research Topic we aim to provide a comprehensive outlook on DNA repair-targeting cancer therapeutics currently used in the clinic and an insight into how new therapeutics, or improved understanding of current treatment regimes, can be utilized for precision medicine. This Research Topic will include manuscripts detailing in vitro and preclinical research into cancer therapeutics targeting DNA repair pathways, as well as recent advances such as oligonucleotide therapeutics and combination therapies targeting known and novel DNA repair proteins and pathways.
For this Research Topic, we are interested in Original Research articles, Review articles, Mini Review articles and Brief Research Report articles that focus on the following topics:
• Development or molecular characterization of cancer therapeutics (including small molecule inhibitors) that function by targeting DNA repair pathways
• Preclinical cancer therapeutics that target DNA repair pathways
• PARP, HDAC, HAT, and kinase inhibitors and their role in cancer therapeutics
• Emerging and current advancements made in the development or mechanistic understanding of therapies targeting DNA repair pathways for the treatment of cancer
• Research advancing our understanding, or mechanistic understanding, of combinatorial therapies (including immune-checkpoint inhibitors) with inhibitors of DNA repair pathways
• Research investigating optimization or selection of specific target cohorts (including synthetic lethality interactions in targeting DNA repair pathways to promote tumor regression)
• Investigation of novel therapeutic resistance mechanisms (of DNA repair targeting treatments)
Chemotherapy and radiation therapy remain front line treatment options for many cancers, often acting by inducing DNA damage and ultimately resulting in cell death. This Research Topic will focus on novel and recent advances in the development, molecular understanding, or novel applications of new or current cancer therapeutics targeting DNA repair pathways. In this Research Topic we aim to provide a comprehensive outlook on DNA repair-targeting cancer therapeutics currently used in the clinic and an insight into how new therapeutics, or improved understanding of current treatment regimes, can be utilized for precision medicine. This Research Topic will include manuscripts detailing in vitro and preclinical research into cancer therapeutics targeting DNA repair pathways, as well as recent advances such as oligonucleotide therapeutics and combination therapies targeting known and novel DNA repair proteins and pathways.
For this Research Topic, we are interested in Original Research articles, Review articles, Mini Review articles and Brief Research Report articles that focus on the following topics:
• Development or molecular characterization of cancer therapeutics (including small molecule inhibitors) that function by targeting DNA repair pathways
• Preclinical cancer therapeutics that target DNA repair pathways
• PARP, HDAC, HAT, and kinase inhibitors and their role in cancer therapeutics
• Emerging and current advancements made in the development or mechanistic understanding of therapies targeting DNA repair pathways for the treatment of cancer
• Research advancing our understanding, or mechanistic understanding, of combinatorial therapies (including immune-checkpoint inhibitors) with inhibitors of DNA repair pathways
• Research investigating optimization or selection of specific target cohorts (including synthetic lethality interactions in targeting DNA repair pathways to promote tumor regression)
• Investigation of novel therapeutic resistance mechanisms (of DNA repair targeting treatments)
Keywords: DNA repair, genomic stability, cancer, cancer therapeutics, novel chemotherapeutics
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
