TY - JOUR
T1 - Characteristics of the cancer stem cell niche and therapeutic strategies
AU - Ju, Feng
AU - Atyah, Manar M.
AU - Horstmann, Nellie
AU - Gul, Sheraz
AU - Vago, Razi
AU - Bruns, Christiane J.
AU - Zhao, Yue
AU - Dong, Qiong Zhu
AU - Ren, Ning
N1 - Funding Information:
Figures were composed with the assistance of Servier Medical Art (https://smart.servier.com/) and Biorender (https://biorender.com/).
Funding Information:
Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81472672), International Science and Technology Cooperation Project of Shanghai (18410721900, 21490713700), Leading Talent Program of Minhang District (2017), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC1308604), Köln Fortune Program/Faculty of Medicine, University of Cologne (457/2020), Medical Engineering Project of Fudan University (yg2021-017) and the Program of Shanghai Academic Research Leader (20XD1400900).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/12/1
Y1 - 2022/12/1
N2 - Distinct regions harboring cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been identified within the microenvironment of various tumors, and as in the case of their healthy counterparts, these anatomical regions are termed “niche.” Thus far, a large volume of studies have shown that CSC niches take part in the maintenance, regulation of renewal, differentiation and plasticity of CSCs. In this review, we summarize and discuss the latest findings regarding CSC niche morphology, physical terrain, main signaling pathways and interactions within them. The cellular and molecular components of CSCs also involve genetic and epigenetic modulations that mediate and support their maintenance, ultimately leading to cancer progression. It suggests that the crosstalk between CSCs and their niche plays an important role regarding therapy resistance and recurrence. In addition, we updated diverse therapeutic strategies in different cancers in basic research and clinical trials in this review. Understanding the complex heterogeneity of CSC niches is a necessary pre-requisite for designing superior therapeutic strategies to target CSC-specific factors and/or components of the CSC niche.
AB - Distinct regions harboring cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been identified within the microenvironment of various tumors, and as in the case of their healthy counterparts, these anatomical regions are termed “niche.” Thus far, a large volume of studies have shown that CSC niches take part in the maintenance, regulation of renewal, differentiation and plasticity of CSCs. In this review, we summarize and discuss the latest findings regarding CSC niche morphology, physical terrain, main signaling pathways and interactions within them. The cellular and molecular components of CSCs also involve genetic and epigenetic modulations that mediate and support their maintenance, ultimately leading to cancer progression. It suggests that the crosstalk between CSCs and their niche plays an important role regarding therapy resistance and recurrence. In addition, we updated diverse therapeutic strategies in different cancers in basic research and clinical trials in this review. Understanding the complex heterogeneity of CSC niches is a necessary pre-requisite for designing superior therapeutic strategies to target CSC-specific factors and/or components of the CSC niche.
KW - Cancer stem cells
KW - Chemokines
KW - Hypoxia
KW - Metastasis
KW - Niche/microenvironment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85131633533&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/s13287-022-02904-1
DO - 10.1186/s13287-022-02904-1
M3 - Review article
C2 - 35659296
AN - SCOPUS:85131633533
SN - 1757-6512
VL - 13
JO - Stem Cell Research and Therapy
JF - Stem Cell Research and Therapy
IS - 1
M1 - 233
ER -
