SUMOylation and anticancer drug resistance.

Therapeutic resistance is a major obstacle in cancer treatment, often leading to recurrence and death. SUMOylation is a dynamic and reversible process of post-translational modification through a strict enzyme cascade that regulates the modification of target proteins by SUMO1-5 and SENP family proteins, which are involved in regulating protein stability, function, and localization to influence biological pathways, including cancers. SUMOylation contributes significantly to cancer drug resistance, undermining the efficacy of clinical treatment. Therefore, studying the role of SUMOylation in the development of cancer drug resistance has significant prospects. This review focuses on the important mechanistic role of SUMOylation in promoting or inhibiting cancer drug resistance and summarizes the feasibility of using SUMOylation as a therapeutic target for cancer treatment by combining SUMOylation inhibitors and anticancer drugs, which will provide new insights into overcoming cancer drug resistance and clinical cancer treatment.