PARP inhibitors

PARP (poly ADP-ribose polymerase) inhibitors are a class of drugs that block the activity of PARP enzymes, which play a crucial role in repairing damaged DNA. PARP enzymes facilitate the repair of single-strand breaks in DNA through the base excision repair pathway. By inhibiting PARP, these inhibitors prevent the repair of single-strand DNA breaks, leading to the accumulation of DNA damage. In cells with deficiencies in other DNA repair pathways, such as those carrying BRCA mutations, this accumulation of DNA damage can overwhelm the cell's repair capacity, resulting in cell death. PARP inhibitors are particularly effective in treating cancers with defects in homologous recombination repair, such as BRCA-mutated cancers.