The progression of exploratory development of raltitrexed in colorectal cancer

Thymidine synthase(thymidylate synthase,TS) catalysises the methylation of deoxyuridine into deoxyuridine monophosphate(deoxythymidine monophosphate,dTMP).It is the limiting enzyme of the synthesis of dTMP in cells.So it becomes an important target of biochemical research and anti-tumor drug development.Over the past 10 years,many researchers have been working on the mechanism and the efficiency of a variety of new thymidylate synthase inhibitors in the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer.Raltitrexed is a new generation of water-soluble thymidylate synthase inhibitor.It can be intaken by the specific transport and metabolism,then can achieve good anti-tumor effect and significant advantage.In this paper,the progression of exploratory development of raltitrexed is analyzed and discussed.