Department of Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran; Immunology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Department of Plant Biology, Faculty of Natural Science, University of Tabriz, Iran.
Gene. 2022 Jun 15;827:146448. doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2022.146448. Epub 2022 Mar 22.
Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a small population of malignant cells that induce tumor onset and development. CSCs share similar features with normal stem cells in the case of self-renewal and differentiation. They also contribute to chemoresistance and metastasis of cancer cells, leading to therapeutic failure. To identify CSCs, multiple cell surface markers have been characterized, including Nanog, which is found at high levels in different cancers. Recent studies have revealed that Nanog upregulation has a substantial association with the advanced stages and poor prognosis of malignancies, playing a pivotal role through tumorigenesis of multiple human cancers, including leukemia, liver, colorectal, prostate, ovarian, lung, head and neck, brain, pancreatic, gastric and breast cancers. Nanog through different signaling pathways, like JAK/STAT and Wnt/β-catenin pathways, induces stemness, self-renewal, metastasis, invasiveness, and chemoresistance of cancer cells. Some of these signaling pathways are common in various types of cancers, but some have been found in one or two cancers. Therefore, this review aimed to focus on the function of Nanog in multiple cancers based on recent studies surveying the suitable approaches to target Nanog and inhibit CSCs residing in tumors to gain favorable results from cancer treatments.
癌症干细胞（CSCs）是一小群恶性细胞，可诱导肿瘤的发生和发展。CSCs 在自我更新和分化方面与正常干细胞具有相似的特征。它们还导致癌细胞的化疗耐药性和转移，从而导致治疗失败。为了鉴定 CSCs，已经描述了多种细胞表面标志物，包括 Nanog，它在不同的癌症中高水平存在。最近的研究表明，Nanog 的上调与恶性肿瘤的晚期和预后不良有很大关系，通过多种人类癌症（包括白血病、肝、结直肠、前列腺、卵巢、肺、头颈部、脑、胰腺、胃和乳腺癌）的肿瘤发生发挥关键作用。Nanog 通过不同的信号通路，如 JAK/STAT 和 Wnt/β-catenin 通路，诱导癌细胞的干性、自我更新、转移、侵袭和化疗耐药性。这些信号通路中的一些在各种类型的癌症中是常见的，但有些仅在一种或两种癌症中发现。因此，本综述旨在根据最近研究中调查靶向 Nanog 和抑制肿瘤中 CSCs 的方法，重点关注 Nanog 在多种癌症中的功能，以获得癌症治疗的有利结果。
