Collaborative research sheds light on new cancer stem cell therapies

ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2012) — A
collaborative anti-cancer research jointly conducted by The
Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), Peking University
Shenzhen Graduate School and Nevada Cancer Institute has led to
the development of a novel class of chemical inhibitors that
specifically target cancer cells with pluripotency.

This cutting-edge research has combined the effort of three
research teams including one led by Dr Tao Ye (??), Associate
Professor of PolyU's Department of Applied Biology and Chemical
Technology. This breakthrough may help the selective removal of
cancer stem cells and potentially provide a novel strategy to
eradicate cancers.

Cancer is a major cause of human death in China and all around
the world. It is difficult to treat cause of the existence of
cancer initiating cells/cancer stem cells. Although they exist
in very few in numbers, cancer stem cells (CSCs) can
proliferate and self-renew, and are pluripotent and
multipotent, which have the capability to differentiate into
various more heterogeneous cancer cells that constitute the
entire tumor mass. As stem cells, they are more resistant to
most conventional cancer therapies such as chemotherapy or
radiotherapy due to their differences in the cell cycle
regulation and DNA repair processes. They also act as the
source for metastasis and recurring drug resistant cancers
after conventional cancer therapy. Currently, there are no
chemical inhibitors or other agents that can specifically and
selectively target cancer stem cells. The development of
compounds that target cancer stem cells is an unmet medical
demand for the eradication of malignant cancers.

According to Dr Ye, the potential clinical applications of new
LSD1 inhibitors include the following:

(1) They can be used to treat malignant germ cell tumors such
as teratoma/teratocarcinomas, embryonic carcinomas, seminomas,
choriocarcinomas, and tumors of yolk sac. These tumors are
usually treated by surgery or cis-platinum, but after initial
treatment, these tumors always become resistant to platinum
drugs. So far, the LSD1 inhibitors are highly effective towards
these pluriptont cancers with stem cell properties.

(2) The LSD1 inhibitors may also be used to remove
teratomas/embryonic carcinomas during stem cell-based therapy.
One major problem in stem/iPS cell-based therapy is the
formation of embryonic carcinomas, teratomas, or
teratocarcinomas by incomplete differentiation of ES/iPS cells
in the organs of recipients.  Because LSD1 selectively
inhibit these pluripotent embryonic carcinomas, teratomas, or
teratocarcinomas, LSD1 inhibitors may help ensure the
successful application of stem cell-based therapy.

(3) More importantly, since teratomas/embryonic carcinomas are
pluripotent cancer stem cells, researchers will probe whether
cancer stem cells of other types of major organ-specific
cancers such as breast, ovarian, lung, and brain cancers are
sensitive to these LSD1 inhibitors. Further studies indicated
that LSD1 inhibitors can also be used to inhibit many cancer
stem cell-like cells such as breast and ovarian cancers.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by The Hong Kong Polytechnic
University, via ResearchSEA.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For
further information, please contact the source cited
above.

Journal References:

Felix Cheung. Cancer biology: Ridding the seeds of
evil. Nature China, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nchina.2012.1

J. Wang, F. Lu, Q. Ren, H. Sun, Z. Xu, R. Lan, Y. Liu, D.
Ward, J. Quan, T. Ye, H. Zhang. Novel Histone
Demethylase LSD1 Inhibitors Selectively Target Cancer Cells
with Pluripotent Stem Cell Properties. Cancer
Research, 2011; 71 (23): 7238 DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-11-0896

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited
instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended
to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views
expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily
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Collaborative research sheds light on new cancer stem cell therapies