Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Feb 26, 2024; 16(2): 207-227
Published online Feb 26, 2024. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v16.i2.207
VX-509 attenuates the stemness characteristics of colorectal cancer stem-like cells by regulating the epithelial-mesenchymal transition through Nodal/Smad2/3 signaling
Yun Yuan, Xu-Fan Zhang, Yu-Chen Li, Hong-Qing Chen, Tian Wen, Jia-Lian Zheng, Zi-Yi Zhao, Qiong-Ying Hu
Yun Yuan, Yu-Chen Li, Hong-Qing Chen, Tian Wen, Qiong-Ying Hu, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu 610072, Sichuan Province, China
Xu-Fan Zhang, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu 610072, Sichuan Province, China
Xu-Fan Zhang, College of Medical Technology, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu 611137, Sichuan Province, China
Jia-Lian Zheng, Department of Hepatology, Affiliated Hospital of Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shenyang 110032, Liaoning Province, China
Zi-Yi Zhao, Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu 610072, Sichuan Province, China
Zi-Yi Zhao, Traditional Chinese Medicine Regulating Metabolic Diseases Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu 610072, Sichuan Province, China
Co-first authors: Yun Yuan and Xu-Fan Zhang.
Co-corresponding authors: Jia-Lian Zheng and Qiong-Ying Hu.
Author contributions: Yuan Y, Zhang XF, Li YC, Chen HQ, Wen T, Zheng JL, Zhao ZY, and Hu QY contributed to the investigation of this manuscript; Yuan Y, Li YC, Chen HQ, and Wen T were involved in the data curation; Yuan Y, Li YC, Zheng JL, and Hu QY participated in the methodology of this study; Yuan Y, Zhang XF, Zheng JL, Zhao ZY, and Hu QY took part in the conceptualization of this article; Yuan Y and Zhang XF wrote the original draft; Zhang XF, Zheng JL, and Hu QY contributed to the project administration of this manuscript; Zheng JL, Zhao ZY, and Hu QY were major in the funding acquisition and supervision of this program.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82074298; Chengdu Science and Technology Bureau Project, No. 2021-YF05-01726-SN; and “Xinglin Scholars” Research Promotion Program of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. QJRC2022007.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by Related Ethical Regulations of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All the animal experiments were approved by the ethics committee of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Institute of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: All data during the study are available from the corresponding author by request at qiongyinghu@163.com.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Qiong-Ying Hu, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 39 Shierqiao Road, Jinniu District, Chengdu 610072, Sichuan Province, China. qiongyinghu@163.com
Received: October 30, 2023
Peer-review started: October 30, 2023
First decision: December 5, 2023
Revised: December 19, 2023
Accepted: January 16, 2024
Article in press: January 16, 2024
Published online: February 26, 2024
Processing time: 118 Days and 15.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a malignant cancer of the digestive tract with high recurrence and metastasis. CRC stem cells (CCSCs) exerted self-renewing and repopulating capacity, which are hard to eliminate and cause recurrence and metastasis of CRC. VX-509 has been reported as a rheumatoid arthritis regular treatment. However, the role of VX-509 in CCSCs is not well studied. In this study, VX-509 inhibited the malignant biological behaviors and stemness of CCSCs. Further experiments suggested that VX-509 downregulated the expression of Nodal to suppress the epithelial-mesenchymal transition and inhibit the stemness of CCSCs, which provided a potent therapy measure for CRC.