Role of Magnesium in Cancer Treatment

Introduction: Cancer is a multifactorial condition results from interaction of genetic and environmental factors that modulate tumorigenesis and disease progression. Magnesium, the second most abundant intracellular cation, is involved in many biochemical reactions and modulate fundamental cell functions including proliferation, differentiation, migration and apoptosis. Magnesium deficiency has identified as a risk factor for some types of human cancers.DNA Damage and Cancer: Magnesium and has an important role in genetic stability and DNA synthesis and moderate Mg deficiency causes genetic instability, activation of cell-cycle arrest proteins, and mitochondrial DNA damage. Magnesium supports multiple DNA-repair processes so that all downstream activities of major base excision repair proteins require this element.Magnesium and tumor growth: Cell-cycle progression depends on magnesium supply and low Mg availability inhibits that. Proliferating cells contain more magnesium than resting ones. In the other words, without an adequate Mg supply, no proliferation can occur.Neoangiogenesis and Metastasization: Neo-angiogenesis is necessary for tumor growth and progression. Magnesium can affect various steps of the highly complex angiogenic process and its deficiency prevents both proliferation and migration of endothelial cells. Moreover, hypomagnesaemia may induce pro-inflammatory condition that might create a favorable microenvironment for tumor growth and progression.Magnesium transporters in cancer: The transient receptor potential melastatin 7 (TRPM 7) channels are essential for the Mg homeostasis in normal and tumor cells. Because of their versatile properties, TRPM7 channels could affect the behavior of tumor cell by modulating both proliferation and plasticity/motility. TRPM 7 expression and Mg homeostasis are altered in drug resistant cancer cells, so there might be a Mg-regulating mechanism in cancer drug resistance.Conclusions and future perspectives: More studies should be undertaken to determine whether intervention for Mg optimization might be helpful in cancer prevention and treatment. Moreover, Mg transporter expression and/or activity may constitute novel therapeutic targets for circumvention of chemoresistance.

کلیدواژه ها:

Magnesium ، Cancer ، TRPM7 ، Angiogenesis ، Metastasis