Targeting of Lysosomes as a Therapeutic Target in Cancer

Lysosomes are important intracellular organelles involved in degradation metabolism, maintenance of homeostasis, cell survival and programmed death regulation, and play an important role in immunity. Some studies have shown that lysosomes are closely linked to tumor development. Lysosomes in tumor cells increase in size and activity to adapt to rapid proliferation. Cancer cells provide strong support for their unrestricted growth and proliferation by precisely regulating the number, composition and functional activities of lysosomes and also create favorable conditions for malignant behaviors such as survival, migration, invasion, and metastatic spread of cancer cells. Lysosomes play a central role in tumor progression, and in recent years, lysosomes have become an important target for anticancer strategies aimed at interfering with their function or modulating related signaling pathways to inhibit tumors. Current anti-cancer strategies include the following five aspects: (1) targeting tumor cell energy metabolism and lysosomes to inhibit growth; (2) inhibiting lysosomal histone proteases to block degradation metabolism; (3) destabilizing lysosomal membranes to trigger tumor cell death; (4) modulating lysosomal calcium signaling to affect tumor cell function; and (5) interfering with the mTOR signaling pathway to inhibit tumor growth and proliferation. These lysosome-targeted anticancer strategies offer broad prospects and potential for the development of novel anticancer drugs and therapies and are expected to bring more effective and safer therapeutic options for cancer patients.