Table 1.

Antiproliferative and cytotoxic effect of selected antivirals and antibiotics

Anti-microbial	Target and its function	Mechanism	Shown in	References
Ribavirin	Eukaryotic translation initiation factor: eIF4E; Enhanced mRNA transport and translation of cyclin D1, survivin, c-myc, VEGF and etc.	Ribavirin binds to eIF4E with high affinity and competes with its binding to mRNA; selectively disrupts eIF4E subcellular organization and therefore transport and translation of mRNAs which are post-transcriptionally regulated by eIF4E leading to decreased levels of oncogenes such as cyclin D1.	Patients with acute myeloid leukemias; Breast cancer cell lines	[27-29]
Acyclovir	indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO); enhances activity of Treg while Treg inhibits immunity in glioblastomas	Acyclovir could decrease Treg function in glioblastoma and could potentially be used as an adjunct in therapy	Proposed	[8]
17-AAG, 17-DMAG (geldanamycin analogs)	HSP-90 promotes survival of tumor cell, induces their growth and metastasis even when there are no growth factors via continued protein translation and cellular proliferation; Its client proteins include: KIT, AKT, CDK4, telomerase, Bcl-2, MMP2 and others.	Inhibition of HSP90 leads to decreased level and activity of its client protein protooncogene KIT and downstream signaling molecules AKT and STAT3	HMC-1 cells derived from a patient with mast cell leukemia	[30,31]
		Hsp90 inhibition by 17-AAG leads to decreased proliferation and viability and increased radiosensitivity of cancer cells	Oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma cell lines	[32]
Clioquinol	Acts as metal ionophore	Probably increases metal concentration in mitochondria and induces release of cytochrome c leading to apoptosis	DHL-4, A2780, SiHa and other cells and mouse xenograft model	[33]
PMEG, PMEDAP	VEGF, EGF, FGF, PDGF and their receptors are important in angiogenesis	Diphosphate derivatives of PMEG and PMEDAP inhibit DNA polymerase and activity of human telomerase in vitro. DNA damage could affect signalling pathways associated with angiogenesis.	SD-lymphoma bearing rats	[34]