PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Jingwen Bai
AU  - Yaochen Li
AU  - Guojun Zhang
TI  - Cell cycle regulation and anticancer drug discovery
AID  - 10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2017.0033
DP  - 2017 Nov 01
TA  - Cancer Biology and Medicine
PG  - 348--362
VI  - 14
IP  - 4
4099  - http://www.cancerbiomed.org/content/14/4/348.short
4100  - http://www.cancerbiomed.org/content/14/4/348.full
SO  - Cancer Biol Med2017 Nov 01; 14
AB  - Cellular growth, development, and differentiation are tightly controlled by a conserved biological mechanism: the cell cycle. This cycle is primarily regulated by cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)-cyclin complexes, checkpoint kinases, and CDK inhibitors. Deregulation of the cell cycle is a hallmark of the transformation of normal cells into tumor cells. Given its importance in tumorigenesis, several cell cycle inhibitors have emerged as potential therapeutic drugs for the treatment of cancers-both as single-agent therapy and in combination with traditional cytotoxic or molecular targeting agents. In this review, we discuss the mechanisms underlying cell cycle regulation and present small-molecule anticancer drugs that are under development, including both pan-CDK inhibitors and CDK4/6-selective inhibitors. In addition, we provide an outline of some promising CDK inhibitors currently in preclinical and clinical trials that target cell cycle abnormalities in various cancers.