Small molecules regulating reactive oxygen species homeostasis for cancer therapy

Elevated intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidant defense systems have been recognized as one of the hallmarks of cancer cells. Compared with normal cells, cancer cells exhibit increased ROS to maintain their malignant phenotypes and are more dependent on the “redox adaptation” mechanism. Thus, there are two apparently contradictory but virtually complementary therapeutic strategies for the regulation of ROS to prevent or treat cancer. The first strategy, that is, chemoprevention, is to prevent or reduce intracellular ROS either by suppressing ROS production pathways or by employing antioxidants to enhance ROS clearance, which protects normal cells from malignant transformation and inhibits the early stage of tumorigenesis. The second strategy is the ROS‐mediated anticancer therapy, which stimulates intracellular ROS to a toxicity threshold to activate ROS‐induced cell death pathways. Therefore, targeting the regulation of intracellular ROS‐related pathways by small‐molecule candidates is considered to be a promising treatment for tumors. We herein first briefly introduce the source and regulation of ROS, and then focus on small molecules that regulate ROS‐related pathways and show efficacy in cancer therapy from the perspective of pharmacophores. Finally, we discuss several challenges in developing cancer therapeutic agents based on ROS regulation and propose the direction of future development.