Combination Therapy and Dual-Target Inhibitors Based on LSD1: New Emerging Tools in Cancer Therapy

Lysine specific demethylase 1 (LSD1), a transcriptional modulator that represses or activates target gene expression, is overexpressed in many cancer and causes imbalance in the expression of normal gene networks. Over two decades, numerous LSD1 inhibitors have been reported, especially some of which have entered clinical trials, including eight irreversible inhibitors (TCP, ORY-1001, GSK-2879552, INCB059872, IMG-7289, ORY-2001, TAK-418, and LH-1802) and two reversible inhibitors (CC-90011 and SP-2577). Most clinical LSD1 inhibitors demonstrated enhanced efficacy in combination with other agents. LSD1 multitarget inhibitors have also been reported, exampled by clinical dual LSD1/histone deacetylases (HDACs) inhibitors 4SC-202 and JBI-802. Herein, we present a comprehensive overview of the combination of LSD1 inhibitors with various antitumor agents, as well as LSD1 multitarget inhibitors. Additionally, the challenges and future research directionsare also discussed, and we hope this review will provide new insight into the development of LSD1-targeted anticancer agents.