Issues

Skin cancer is the most common malignancy worldwide, representing a significant challenge in public health. The β-blocker carvedilol, commonly used to manage cardiovascular conditions, has shown promising activity in preventing skin cancer. However, as a potent β-blocker, repurposing carvedilol into a cancer preventive agent is limited because systemic administration will reduce heart rate and cardiac output, resulting in depressed cardiac function. The chiral compound carvedilol is marketed as a racemic mixture consisting of an equal amount of S- and R-carvedilol. Although S-carvedilol is a β-blocker, R-carvedilol does not possess β-blocking activity. In the study starting on page 527, Liang and colleagues examined the non-β-blocking enantiomer R-carvedilol as a skin cancer preventive agent. R-carvedilol is equally effective in preventing neoplastic transformation of mouse epidermal cells, and R-carvedilol is also effective in preventing UV-induced development of squamous cell carcinoma in mice. Therefore, R-carvedilol, lacking β-blocking activity and related depressed cardiac function while retaining anticancer efficacy, is an excellent candidate to prevent skin cancer. The cover image shows that R-carvedilol and racemic carvedilol reduce expression of Ki-67, a cell proliferation marker, in mouse skin acutely irradiated with UV.