Kevat Sakshi, Mistry Archie, Oza Naman, Majmudar Mohit, Patel Netra, Shah Rushabh, Ramachandran A V, Chauhan Ritu, Haque Shafiul, Parashar Nidarshana Chaturvedi, Tuli Hardeep Singh, Parashar Gaurav
Division of Biomedical and Life Sciences, School of Science, Navrachana University, Vadodara, Gujarat, India.
Department of Biotechnology, Graphic Era Deemed to be University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India.
Cell Biochem Biophys. 2025 Jun;83(2):1521-1535. doi: 10.1007/s12013-025-01666-w. Epub 2025 Jan 23.
Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs) play an important role in the development, resistance, and recurrence of many malignancies. These subpopulations of tumor cells have the potential to self-renew, differentiate, and resist conventional therapy, highlighting their importance in cancer etiology. This review explores the regulatory mechanisms of CSCs in breast, cervical, and lung cancers, highlighting their plasticity, self-renewal, and differentiation capabilities. CD44+/CD24- cells are a known marker for breast CSCs. Markers like as CD133 and ALDH have been discovered in cervical cancer CSCs. Similarly, in lung cancer, CSCs identified by CD44, CD133, and ALDH are linked to aggressive tumor behavior and poor therapy results. The commonalities between these tumors highlight the general necessity of targeting CSCs in treatment efforts. However, the intricacies of CSC activity, such as their interaction with the tumor microenvironment and particular signaling pathways differ between cancer types, demanding specialized methods. Wnt/β-catenin, Notch, and Hedgehog pathways are one of the essential signaling pathways, targeting them, may show ameliorative effects on breast, lung and cervical carcinomas and their respective CSCs. Pre-clinical data suggests targeting specific signaling pathways can eliminate CSCs, but ongoing clinical trials are on utilizing signaling pathway inhibitors in patients. In recent studies it has been reported that CAR T based targeting of specific markers may be used as combination therapy. Ongoing research related to nanobiotechnology can also play a significant role in diagnosis and treatment purpose targeting CSCs, as nanomaterials can be used for precise targeting and identification of CSCs. Further research into the targeting of signaling pathways and its precursors could prove to be right step into directing therapies towards CSCs for cancer therapy.
癌症干细胞（CSCs）在许多恶性肿瘤的发生、耐药及复发过程中发挥着重要作用。这些肿瘤细胞亚群具有自我更新、分化及抵抗传统治疗的能力，凸显了它们在癌症病因学中的重要性。本综述探讨了CSCs在乳腺癌、宫颈癌和肺癌中的调控机制，强调了它们的可塑性、自我更新及分化能力。CD44+/CD24-细胞是已知的乳腺癌CSCs标志物。在宫颈癌CSCs中已发现如CD133和醛脱氢酶（ALDH）等标志物。同样，在肺癌中，由CD44、CD133和ALDH鉴定的CSCs与侵袭性肿瘤行为及不良治疗结果相关。这些肿瘤之间的共性突出了在治疗中靶向CSCs的普遍必要性。然而，CSC活性的复杂性，如它们与肿瘤微环境及特定信号通路的相互作用在不同癌症类型之间存在差异，需要专门的方法。Wnt/β-连环蛋白、Notch和Hedgehog信号通路是重要的信号通路之一，靶向这些通路可能对乳腺癌、肺癌和宫颈癌及其各自的CSCs产生改善作用。临床前数据表明靶向特定信号通路可消除CSCs，但正在进行的临床试验是在患者中使用信号通路抑制剂。在最近的研究中，有报道称基于嵌合抗原受体T细胞（CAR T）靶向特定标志物可作为联合治疗方法。与纳米生物技术相关的正在进行的研究在靶向CSCs的诊断和治疗目的方面也可发挥重要作用，因为纳米材料可用于精确靶向和识别CSCs。对信号通路及其前体的靶向进行进一步研究可能是朝着针对CSCs进行癌症治疗的正确方向迈出的一步。
