College of Pharmacy, Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu, China.
The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 12246, United States.
Curr Pharm Des. 2020;26(17):2009-2021. doi: 10.2174/1381612826666200317132949.
Accumulating evidences have demonstrated that the existence of breast cancer-initiating cells, which drives the original tumorigenicity, local invasion and migration propensity of breast cancer. These cells, termed as breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs), possess properties including self-renewal, multidirectional differentiation and proliferative potential, and are believed to play important roles in the intrinsic drug resistance of breast cancer. One of the reasons why BCBCs cause difficulties in breast cancer treating is that BCBCs can control both genetic and non-genetic elements to keep their niches safe and sound, which allows BCSCs for constant self-renewal and differentiation. Therapeutic strategies designed to target BCSCs may ultimately result in effective interventions for the treatment of breast cancer. Novel strategies including nanomedicine, oncolytic virus therapy, immunotherapy and induced differentiation therapy are emerging and proved to be efficient in anti-BCSCs therapy. In this review, we summarized breast tumor biology and the current challenges of breast cancer therapies, focused on breast cancer stem cells, and introduced promising therapeutic strategies targeting BCSCs.
越来越多的证据表明，乳腺癌起始细胞的存在驱动了乳腺癌的原始致瘤性、局部侵袭和迁移倾向。这些细胞被称为乳腺癌干细胞（BCSCs），具有自我更新、多向分化和增殖潜能等特性，被认为在乳腺癌的内在耐药性中发挥重要作用。BCSCs 导致乳腺癌治疗困难的原因之一是，BCSCs 可以控制遗传和非遗传因素，以保持其龛位的安全和完好，从而使 BCSCs 能够持续自我更新和分化。旨在针对 BCSCs 的治疗策略最终可能会为治疗乳腺癌提供有效的干预措施。新型策略包括纳米医学、溶瘤病毒治疗、免疫治疗和诱导分化治疗，已被证明在抗 BCSCs 治疗中有效。在这篇综述中，我们总结了乳腺癌肿瘤生物学和乳腺癌治疗的当前挑战，重点介绍了乳腺癌干细胞，并介绍了针对 BCSCs 的有前途的治疗策略。
