Abstract
Stem cells are vital for regenerating and repairing the organs such as the heart, lungs, skin, germ cells and other tissues. But the characteristics of normal stem cells and the discovery of origin of leukemia have headed the scientist to the hypothesis that cancer may initiate from stem cell-like cells. Cancer stem cells are now thought to be responsible for cancer initiation, progression, metastasis, recurrence and drug resistance. There are some similarities and differences between CSCs and healthy stem cells in signaling pathways (Wnt/ β–catenin, Hh, Notch), epigenetic modifications, telomere maintenance, and degree of dependence on the stem cell niche, maintenance of multipotency and self-renewability of respective progenitor cells. Distinct and specific surface biomarker phenotypes can be used to distinguish CSC from other tumor cells and normal stem cells through single and combination of markers such as CD44, CD34+CD38− and CD133. Recently, miRNAs have been tried as a marker and therapeutic agents against cancers stem cell such as miR-34a, miR-199a, miR-181, miR-125b-2 and miR-128. However, targeting CSCs without harming their normal counterparts is an advantageous way in the design of novel therapies but many questions remain unknown.
Highlights
Stem cell research is one of the most fascinating areas of contemporary biology because SCs have the potency to regenerate and repair the organs such as the heart, lungs, skin, germ cells and other tissues
AML mutated cells are found to be highly resistant to chemotherapy and are responsible for the recurrence of AML after an initial complete retardation, even after chemotherapy they rapidly replenish the leukemic cell population (Yu et al, 2012).So, AML- CSCs are those specific types of cells which initiate, progress cancer and somehow sustain in cell populations
Understanding the role of different pathways, epigenetic regulations and niche condition for initiation of progenitor cancer stem cell and identification of CSCs within cancer cell population is essential for the development of anticancer therapy, because diverse populations of cancer cells inside a tumor can switch back and forth between one cell that divide quickly but do not attack, and stem cell-like cells split deliberately but are extremely metastatic (Kantara et al, 2014)
Summary
Stem cell research is one of the most fascinating areas of contemporary biology because SCs have the potency to regenerate and repair the organs such as the heart, lungs, skin, germ cells and other tissues. Based on the frequency of occurrence, healthy stem cells are present in the tissues in a very small amount but CSCs can be a rather large population in the bulk of tumor cells (Jaworska et al, 2015) In addition to their ability to self-renew and differentiation, CSCs are enriched in cells postulated to be resistant to conventional radiation and chemotherapy but not SCs. There are pieces of evidence to suggest that progenitor in both normal and cancer tissues are maintaining similar types a hierarchy.
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