Cancer cells exhibit molecular characteristics that confer them different proliferative capacities and survival advantages to adapt to stress conditions, such as deregulation of cellular bioenergetics, genomic instability, ability to promote angiogenesis, invasion, cell dormancy, immune evasion, and cell death resistance. In addition to these hallmarks of cancer, the current cytostatic drugs target the proliferation of malignant cells, being ineffective in metastatic disease. These aspects highlight the need to identify promising therapeutic targets for new generations of anti-cancer drugs. Toxins isolated from snake venoms are a natural source of useful molecular scaffolds to obtain agents with a selective effect on cancer cells. In this article, we discuss the recent advances in the molecular mechanisms of nine classes of snake toxins that suppress the hallmarks of cancer by induction of oxidative phosphorylation dysfunction, reactive oxygen species-dependent DNA damage, blockage of extracellular matrix-integrin signaling, disruption of cytoskeleton network and inhibition of growth factor-dependent signaling. The possible therapeutic implications of toxin-based anti-cancer drug development are also highlighted.

癌细胞表现出的分子特征赋予它们不同的增殖能力和生存优势以适应压力条件，例如细胞生物能量学的失调、基因组不稳定性、促进血管生成、侵袭、细胞休眠、免疫逃避和细胞死亡抗性的能力。除了癌症的这些特征外，目前的细胞抑制药物还针对恶性细胞的增殖，对转移性疾病无效。这些方面突出了为新一代抗癌药物确定有希望的治疗靶点的必要性。从蛇毒中分离出的毒素是有用的分子支架的天然来源，可用于获得对癌细胞具有选择性作用的药剂。在本文中，我们讨论了九类蛇毒素分子机制的最新进展，这些蛇毒素通过诱导氧化磷酸化功能障碍、活性氧依赖的 DNA 损伤、细胞外基质整合素信号传导的阻断、细胞骨架网络的破坏和抑制来抑制癌症的标志生长因子依赖性信号。还强调了基于毒素的抗癌药物开发的可能治疗意义。