title: Chemical approaches to targeting drug resistance in cancer stem cells.
abstract: Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a subpopulation of cancer cells with high clonogenic capacity and ability to reform parental tumors upon transplantation. Resistance to therapy has been shown for several types of CSC and, therefore, they have been proposed as the cause of tumor relapse. Consequently, much effort has been made to design molecules that can target CSCs specifically and sensitize them to therapy. In this review, we summarize the mechanisms underlying CSC resistance, the potential biological targets to overcome resistance and the chemical compounds showing activity against different types of CSC. The chemical compounds discussed here have been divided according to their origin: natural, natural-derived and synthetic compounds.
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Research Institute (IRIBHM), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 808 route de Lennik, BatC, 1070 Bruxelles, Belgium.
authors.forename: Panagiota A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Sotiropoulou
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Golgi 19, 20133 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Michael S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Christodoulou
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Golgi 19, 20133 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Silvani
authors.affiliation: Division of Experimental Neurosurgery, Department of Neurosurgery, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Christel
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Herold-Mende
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Golgi 19, 20133 Milano, Italy. Electronic address: daniele.passarella@unimi.it.
authors.forename: Daniele
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Passarella
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects; D004249:DNA Damage; D004260:DNA Repair; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents