0000000000803189
AUTHOR
Pietro Mancuso
Detection of Cancer Stem Cells Using AC133 Antibody
The cancer stem cell (CSC) model postulates that tumors are formed and maintained by a small population of undifferentiated cells, characterized by unique self-renewal properties and malignant potential. As CSCs survive chemotherapy inducing tumor recurrence, the specific targeting and eradication of these cells represents an important therapeutic challenge in cancer cure. Recent findings on CD133, a pentaspan transmembrane glycoprotein, discuss its application in the identification and isolation of SCs from cancerous tissues. However, the appropriateness of this protein constitutes an ongoing discussion. The expression pattern is debated and several issues highlight the need for additional…
Colon Cancer Stem Cells: Bench-to-Bedside—New Therapeutical Approaches in Clinical Oncology for Disease Breakdown
It is widely accepted by the scientific community that cancer, including colon cancer, is a “stem cell disease”. Until a few years ago, common opinion was that all neoplastic cells within a tumor contained tumorigenic growth capacity, but recent evidences hint to the possibility that such a feature is confined to a small subset of cancer-initiating cells, also called cancer stem cells (CSCs). Thus, malignant tumors are organized in a hierarchical fashion in which CSCs give rise to more differentiated tumor cells. CSCs possess high levels of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters and anti-apoptotic molecules, active DNA-repair, slow replication capacities and they produce growth factors tha…