Production of antitumors from actinomycetes bacteria of the genus Streptomyces and Micromonospora

Abstract

Cancer is a pathogen that has existed for many years and has a very high mortality rate, with a 2018 estimate of 9.6 million deaths according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The current treatments called the gold standard for cancer are surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is the use of drugs that act directly on the body's cells. These drugs are also known as antitumor drugs. Studies on the effects of antitumor drugs identified high toxicity on healthy body cells during or after the treatment. The objective of this paper is to find a lower toxicity response in antineoplastic treatments. It can be done through the production of antitumor substances by Actinomycetes. Specifically from the genera Streptomyces and Micromonospora. Thus, the research results showed that the secondary metabolites produced by Streptomyces or Micromonospora had proven antineoplastic action. However, they also present toxicity to healthy cells, like other existing treatments. The genus Streptomyces presented antineoplastic action by producing two anthracycline compounds, Retamycin and Daunorubicin. The genus Microcomonospora also produced anthracycline compounds with high antitumor potential, Retimycin, Galtamycin B, and Saquaiamycin Z. To summarize, these studies are promising, showing that these microorganisms generate substances with antineoplastic actions, but further studies are needed to solve the toxicity problem of these treatments.