Cancer remains one of the leading causes of deaths worldwide, despite advances in its treatment and detection. The conventional chemotherapeutic agents used for the treatment of
cancer have non-specific toxicity toward normal body cells that cause various side effects. Secondly,
cancer cells are known to develop
chemotherapy resistance in due course of treatment. Thus, the demand for novel anti-
cancer agents is increasing day by day. Some of the experimental studies have reported the therapeutic potential of
bacteriocins against various types of
cancer cell lines.
Bacteriocins are ribosomally-synthesized cationic
peptides secreted by almost all groups of bacteria. Some
bacteriocins have shown selective cytotoxicity toward
cancer cells as compared to normal cells. This makes them promising candidates for further investigation and clinical trials. In this review article, we present the overview of the various
cancer cell-specific cytotoxic
bacteriocins, their mode of action and efficacies.