Abstract
Accumulating evidences have suggested the existence of breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs), which possess the potential of both self-renewal and differentiation. The origin of BCSCs might have relationship to the development of normal mammary stem cells. BCSCs are believed to play a key role in the initiation, recurrence and chemo-/radiotherapy resistances of breast cancer. Therefore, elimination of BCSCs is crucial for breast cancer therapy. However, conventional chemo and radiation therapies cannot eradicate BCSCs effectively. Fortunately, nanotechnology holds great potential for specific and efficient anti-BCSCs treatment. “Smart” nanocarriers can distinguish BCSCs from the other breast cancer cells and selectively deliver therapeutic agents to the BCSCs. Emerging findings suggest that BCSCs in breast cancer could be successfully inhibited and even eradicated by functionalized nanomedicines. In this review, we focus on origin of BCSCs, strategies used to target BCSCs, and summarize the nanotechnology-based delivery systems that have been applied for eliminating BCSCs in breast cancer.
Highlights
Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death among females worldwide, accountings for 25% of all cancer cases and 15% of all cancer deaths among females (Torre et al, 2015)
Multifunctional nanomedicines offer a range of strategies for targeting one or more therapeutics to Breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs), increasing their cellular uptake, prolonging systemic circulation, improving biodistribution profiles, and resolving problems of poor stability and solubility
A better understanding of BCSCs microenvironment biology and key characteristics is necessary for the fabrication of more effective anti-BCSCs delivery systems
Summary
Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death among females worldwide, accountings for 25% of all cancer cases and 15% of all cancer deaths among females (Torre et al, 2015). An increasing number of therapeutic agents that have effects on eliminating or inhibiting BCSCs have been proposed and confirmed, such as salinomycin (Muntimadugu et al, 2016), disulfiram (Yip et al, 2011), chloroquine (Liang et al, 2016), curcumin (Gülçür et al, 2013), and siRNA (Zuo et al, 2016). Most of these agents have characteristics limiting their effective applications in vivo, including poor solubility, off-target effects, instability, short circulation halflife, undesirable biodistribution and low therapeutic indices (Hu et al, 2012). We briefly discuss the origin and properties of BCSCs, and provide a summary of the latest developments in nanomedicine approaches for BCSCs-targeted therapy in recent literature
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