HDAC inhibitors show potential to eliminate cancer stem cells
HDAC inhibitors show potential to eliminate cancer stem cells
Cancer stem cells (CSC) are tumor forming and found within most cancers including breast, colon, prostate, melanoma, ovary and pancreatic. These cells can undergo self-renewal and differentiate into multiple cell types that lead to tumor generation. CSCs make up a small subpopulation of cells found in tumors and are the main cause of relapse and metastasis in cancer patients. Existing cancer treatments have been developed on animal research models. However, tumor relapse is hard to study using animal models, and CSCs are typically slow growing and drug resistant. Often, that leads to evasion of traditional cancer therapies. Therefore, development of specific therapeutics to target CSCs is essential for improving cancer survival rates and for treatment of more aggressive, non-resectable tumors.
Recently, scientists have genetically engineered a cell line that mimics CSCs and investigated the role of Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors in breast and ovarian cancer stem cells. HDACs are enzymes that have crucial roles in many biological processes, largely by modulating gene expression through repressing transcription. By utilizing this novel CSC model, researchers discovered that HDAC1 and HDAC7 are especially overexpressed and are necessary to maintain CSCs. Furthermore, clinically available HDAC inhibitors targeting HDAC1 and HDCA7 can be used to specifically target CGCs. Hopefully, this study will initiate further studies and clinical trials to develop selective HDAC inhibitors for improved cancer therapeutics.
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