Advances in Biomarkers and Endogenous Regulation of Breast Cancer Stem Cells

Wenmin Chen; Lu Zhang; Suling Liu; Ceshi Chen

doi:10.3390/cells11192941

Advances in Biomarkers and Endogenous Regulation of Breast Cancer Stem Cells

Cells. 2022 Sep 20;11(19):2941. doi: 10.3390/cells11192941.

Authors

Wenmin Chen^{1

2}, Lu Zhang³, Suling Liu^{3

4}, Ceshi Chen^{1

5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Yunnan Province, Kunming 650201, China.
² Kunming College of Life Sciences, The University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, China.
³ Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center & Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, Cancer Institutes, Key Laboratory of Breast Cancer in Shanghai, The Shanghai Key Laboratory of Medical Epigenetics, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Radiation Oncology, The International Co-laboratory of Medical Epigenetics and Metabolism, Ministry of Science and Technology; Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
⁴ Jiangsu Key Lab of Cancer Biomarkers, Prevention and Treatment, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 211166, China.
⁵ Academy of Biomedical Engineering, Kunming Medical University, Kunming 650500, China.
⁶ The Third Affiliated Hospital, Kunming Medical University, Kunming 650118, China.

Abstract

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers. Even if breast cancer patients initially respond to treatment, developed resistance can lead to a poor prognosis. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a group of undifferentiated cells with self-renewal and multipotent differentiation characteristics. Existing evidence has shown that CSCs are one of the determinants that contribute to the heterogeneity of primary tumors. The emergence of CSCs causes tumor recurrence, metastasis, and therapeutic resistance. Previous studies indicated that different stemness-associated surface markers can identify other breast cancer stem cell (BCSC) subpopulations. Deciphering the critical signaling networks that are involved in the induction and maintenance of stemness is essential to develop novel BCSC-targeting strategies. In this review, we reviewed the biomarkers of BCSCs, critical regulators of BCSCs, and the signaling networks that regulate the stemness of BCSCs.

Keywords: BCSC; biomarker; signal pathway.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Biomarkers
Breast Neoplasms* / pathology
Female
Humans
Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / pathology
Neoplastic Stem Cells / pathology
Signal Transduction

Substances

Biomarkers

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2020YFA0112300 and 2020YFA0803200); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U2102203 and 81830087); and the Yunnan Fundamental Research Projects (202101AS070050); The “Ten Thousand Plan”-National High-Level Talents Special Support Plan (WR-YK5202101); the Program for Outstanding Leading Talents in Shanghai; the Program of Shanghai Academic/Technology Research Leader (20XD1400700); the Program for Outstanding Medical Academic Leader in Shanghai (2019LJ04); and the innovative research team of high-level local university in Shanghai.