CHAPTER 7: Vanadium Compounds as Enzyme Inhibitors with a Focus on Anticancer Effects

Vanadium salts and coordination compounds have desirable cellular anticancer effects, and although they have been investigated in detail as a potential treatment for diabetes, less attention has been given to the anticancer effects. The inhibition of some signal transduction enzymes is known, and studies of the metabolism and activation pathways both in vitro and in vivo are important for future investigations and development of vanadium's role as a new potential drug. In addition, a new approach has demonstrated that the enhancement of oncolytic viruses using vanadium salts and coordination complexes for immunotherapy is very promising. Some differences exist between this approach and current antidiabetic and anticancer studies because vanadium(iv) complexes have been found to be most potent in the latter approach, but the few compounds investigated with oncolytic viruses show that vanadium(v) systems are more effective. We conclude that recent studies demonstrate effects on signal transduction enzymes and anticancer pathways, thus suggesting potential applications of vanadium as anticancer agents in the future both as standalone treatments as well as combination therapies.