β-Lactams as promising anticancer agents: Molecular hybrids, structure activity relationships and potential targets

beta-Lactam, commonly referred as azetidin-2-one, is a multifunctional building block for synthesizing beta-amino ketones, gamma-amino alcohols, and other compounds. Besides its well known antibiotic activity, this ring system exhibits a wide range of activities, attracting the attention of researchers. However, the structurally diverse beta-lactam analogues as anticancer agents and their different molecular targets are poorly discussed. The purpose of this review is 3-fold: (1) to explore the molecular hybridization approach to design beta-lactams hybrids as anticancer agents; (2) the structure activity relationship of the most active anticancer beta-lactams and (3) to summarize their antitumor mechanisms. (C) 2020 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.