Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Oct 26, 2021; 13(10): 1417-1445
Published online Oct 26, 2021. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v13.i10.1417
SOX transcription factors and glioma stem cells: Choosing between stemness and differentiation
Milena Stevanovic, Natasa Kovacevic-Grujicic, Marija Mojsin, Milena Milivojevic, Danijela Drakulic
Milena Stevanovic, Natasa Kovacevic-Grujicic, Marija Mojsin, Milena Milivojevic, Danijela Drakulic, Laboratory for Human Molecular Genetics, Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, University of Belgrade, Belgrade 11042, Serbia
Milena Stevanovic, Chair Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, Belgrade 11158, Serbia
Milena Stevanovic, Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade 11000, Serbia
Author contributions: All authors wrote the manuscript; Stevanovic M and Drakulic D designed the concept of the manuscript; Stevanovic M supervised and edited the manuscript; All authors contributed to the literature review; Stevanovic M, Milivojevic M and Mojsin M contributed to the preparation of the tables; All authors designed the figures; All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
Supported by Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia, No. 451-03-9/2021-14/200042.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: Milena Stevanovic, PhD, Academic Fellow, Full Professor, Senior Research Fellow, Laboratory for Human Molecular Genetics, Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, University of Belgrade, Vojvode Stepe 444a, 11042 Belgrade 152, Serbia. milenastevanovic@imgge.bg.ac.rs
Received: March 26, 2021
Peer-review started: March 26, 2021
First decision: July 4, 2021
Revised: July 15, 2021
Accepted: September 16, 2021
Article in press: September 16, 2021
Published online: October 26, 2021
Processing time: 213 Days and 10.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Despite the remarkable progress that has been made in understanding the cellular and molecular biology of gliomas, current therapeutic strategies have not yet provided a significant benefit to patients or a cure. This review highlights the key functions of SOX transcriptional factors (TFs) in glioblastoma (GBM) and glioma stem cells (GSCs). SOX TFs influence stemness, self-renewal, proliferation, differentiation, viability, migration, invasion, apoptosis, therapy resistance, sphere-forming capacity and tumorigenicity. We emphasized that fine-tuning of the SOX expression level is required to control the balance between the stemness and differentiation of GSCs, making SOX TFs promising therapeutic targets for combatting GBM.