Cancer Stem Cells Therapeutic Target Database: The First Comprehensive Database for Therapeutic Targets of Cancer Stem Cells

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a subpopulation of tumor cells that have strong self-renewal capabilities and may contribute to the failure of conventional cancer therapies. Hence, therapeutics homing in on CSCs represent a novel and promising approach that may eradicate malignant tumors. However, the lack of information on validated targets of CSCs has greatly hindered the development of CSC-directed therapeutics. Herein, we describe the Cancer Stem Cells Therapeutic Target Database (CSCTT), the first online database to provide a rich bioinformatics resource for the display, search, and analysis of structure, function, and related annotation for therapeutic targets of cancer stem cells. CSCTT contains 135 proteins that are potential targets of CSCs, with validated experimental evidence manually curated from existing literatures. Proteins are carefully annotated with a detailed description of protein families, biological process, related diseases, and experimental evidences. In addition, CSCTT has compiled 213 documented therapeutic methods for cancer stem cells, including 118 small molecules and 20 biotherapy methods. The CSCTT may serve as a useful platform for the development of CSC-directed therapeutics against various malignant tumors. The CSCTT database is freely available to the public at http://www.csctt.org/. Stem Cells Translational Medicine 2017;6:331-334.