Recent advances in anticancer peptoids

Since most tumors become resistant to drugs in a gradual and irreversible manner, making treatment less effective over time, anticancer drugs require continuous development. Peptoids are a class of peptidomimetics that can be easily synthesized and optimized. They exhibit a number of unique characteristics, including protease resistance, non-immunogenicity, do not interfere with peptide functionality and skeleton polarity, and can adopt different conformations. They have been studied for their efficacy in different cancer therapies, and can be considered as a promising alternative molecular category for the development of anticancer drugs. Herein, we discuss the extensive recent advances in peptoids and peptoid hybrids in the treatment of cancers such as prostate, breast, lung, and other ones, in the hope of providing a reference for the further development of peptoid anticancer drugs.