Plant protease inhibitors as specific strategies against cancer cells

Cancer is a disease that cause important mortality in the world and investigations in order to understand the mechanisms of tumor development and new treatments are crucial and are carried out in many laboratories worldwide. One of the mechanism of growth and progression of tumors is the secretion of proteases which are responsible for many processes during the cancer progression and metastasis. In this context, molecules that can inhibit these proteases are important strategies for cancer treatment. Plants are important sources of many molecules with a great diversity of functional, structural and pharmacology properties, such as, the protease inhibitors. This review addresses some aspects about molecular mechanisms of cancer proteases and some effects of plant protease inhibitors on cancer cells