A strategic approach to identifi cation of selective inhibitors of cancer stem cells

Abstract

Cancer stem-like cells (CSC) have been implicated in resistance to conventional chemotherapy as well as invasion and metastasis resulting in tumor relapse in majority of epithelial cancers including colorectal cancer. Hence, targeting CSC by small molecules is likely to improve therapeutic outcomes. Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are long linear polysaccharide molecules with varying degrees of sulfation that allows specifi c GAG-protein interaction which plays a key role in regulating cancer hallmarks such as cellular growth, angiogenesis, and immune modulation. However, identifying selective CSC-targeting GAG mimetic has been marred by diffi culties associated with isolating and enriching CSC in vitro. Herein, we discuss two distinct methods, spheroid growth and EMT-transformed cells, to enrich CSC and set up medium- and high-throughput screen to identify selective CSC-targeting agents.