Targeting pancreatic cancer stem cells for cancer therapy.
Pancreatic cancer (PC) is the fourth most frequent cause of cancer death in the United States. Emerging evidence suggests that pancreatic cancer stem cells (CSCs) play a crucial role in the development and progression of PC. Recently, there is increasing evidence showing that chemopreventive agents commonly known as nutraceuticals could target and eliminate CSCs that have been proposed as the root of the tumor progression, which could be partly due to attenuating cell signaling pathways involved in CSCs. Therefore, targeting pancreatic CSCs by nutraceuticals for the prevention of tumor progression and treatment of PC may lead to the development of novel strategy for achieving better treatment outcome of PC patients. In this review article, we will summarize the most recent advances in the pancreatic CSC field, with particular emphasis on nutraceuticals that target CSCs, for fighting this deadly disease.
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Bengbu Medical College, Anhui, People's Republic of China.
Jun
J
Xia
Changjie
C
Chen
Zhiwen
Z
Chen
Lucio
L
Miele
Fazlul H
FH
Sarkar
Zhiwei
Z
Wang
D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; D053823:Hedgehog Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D019718:Receptors, CXCR4 / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors; D051880:Receptors, Notch / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects; D058570:TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors
D053823:Hedgehog Proteins; D019718:Receptors, CXCR4; D051880:Receptors, Notch; D058570:TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases