Du FY, Zhou QF, Sun WJ, Chen GL. Targeting cancer stem cells in drug discovery: Current state and future perspectives. World J Stem Cells 2019; 11(7): 398-420 [PMID: 31396368 DOI: 10.4252/wjsc.v11.i7.398]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Guo-Liang Chen, PhD, Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design and Discovery of Ministry of Education, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, No. 103, Wenhua Road, Shenhe District, Shenyang 110016, Liaoning Province, China. chenguoliang@syphu.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Cell Biology
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Stem Cells. Jul 26, 2019; 11(7): 398-420 Published online Jul 26, 2019. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v11.i7.398
Targeting cancer stem cells in drug discovery: Current state and future perspectives
Fang-Yu Du, Qi-Fan Zhou, Wen-Jiao Sun, Guo-Liang Chen
Fang-Yu Du, Qi-Fan Zhou, Wen-Jiao Sun, Guo-Liang Chen, Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design and Discovery of Ministry of Education, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, Liaoning Province, China
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to the conception and design of the study, literature review and analysis, drafting and critical revision of the manuscript and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported byNatural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province, No. 201602707.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Guo-Liang Chen, PhD, Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design and Discovery of Ministry of Education, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, No. 103, Wenhua Road, Shenhe District, Shenyang 110016, Liaoning Province, China. chenguoliang@syphu.edu.cn
Telephone: +86-24-43520236
Received: February 20, 2019 Peer-review started: February 22, 2019 First decision: June 4, 2019 Revised: June 18, 2019 Accepted: June 27, 2019 Article in press: June 27, 2019 Published online: July 26, 2019
Core Tip
Core tip: The review aims to introduce the field of cancer stem cells (CSCs) and the important signaling pathways in CSCs and present approved inhibitors as well as candidate drugs. Due to the complexity of the crosstalk among various signaling pathways, current strategies involve the development of multitarget inhibitors, combination therapy, and precision treatments based on the genetic characteristics of patients. Other methods of targeting CSCs are introduced as well, including nano-drug delivery systems, mitochondrion targeting, hyperthermia, immunotherapy, and CSC microenvironment targeting. However, this field remains in its infancy, and considerable research will be required to produce mature products that can contribute to curing cancer.
