Cancer metastasis is largely incurable and accounts for 90% of breast cancer deaths, especially the aggressive basal-like or triple negative (TNBC). Combining patient database analyses functional studies, we examined association integrin family members with clinical outcomes as well their connection previously identified microRNA regulators metastasis, such miR-206 that inhibits stemness TNBC. ...

Breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) are believed to be responsible for tumor chemoresistance, recurrence, and metastasis formation. Salinomycin (SAL), a carboxylic polyether ionophore, has been reported to act as a selective breast CSC inhibitor. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying SAL-induced cytotoxicity on BCSCs remain unclear. The Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway plays an important rol...

Introduction: A main choice for cancer treatment is radiotherapy. But, the radiotherapy disadvantage is damages caused by radiation given to normal tissues/organs surrounding cancer. One way to avoid this is via increasing radiosensitization of cancer cells. Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have shown sensitizing effect on cancer cells by enhancing their absorbed dose. Unlike earlier ...

We have previously demonstrated that Llgl1 loss results in a gain of mesenchymal phenotypes and a loss of apicobasal and planar polarity. We now demonstrate that these changes represent a fundamental shift in cellular phenotype. Llgl1 regulates the expression of multiple cell identity markers, including CD44, CD49f, and CD24, and the nuclear translocation of TAZ and Slug. Cells lacking Llgl1 fo...

Enforced expression of miR-34a eliminates cancer stem cells in some malignant tumors. Sirtuin-1 (SIRT1) is a direct target of miR-34a. Here we found low levels of miR-34a and high levels of SIRT1 in CD44+/CD24- breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs). MiR-34a overexpression and knockdown of SIRT1 decreased proportion of BSCSs and mammosphere formation. Expression of CSC markers, ALDH1, BMI1 and Nanog ...

Multi-cycle chemotherapy is commonly used in the clinic, while the phenomena of enrichment of cancer stem cells (CSCs) and enhanced multi-drug resistance (MDR) are commonly involved. This research was designed for evaluating this successive administration. Chitosan oligosaccharide-g-stearic acid (CSOSA) polymer was used as the drug delivery system (DDS) to perform tri-cycle chemotherapy on a ne...

The dissemination of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) requires the Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal transition (EMT), in which cells lose their epithelial characteristics and acquire more mesenchymal-like phenotypes. Current isolation of CTCs relies on affinity-based approaches reliant on the expression of Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule (EpCAM). Here we show EMT-induced breast cancer cells maintained...

Recently developed genomics-based tools are allowing repositioning of Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs as cancer treatments, which were employed to identify drugs that target cancer stem cells (CSCs) of breast cancer. Gene expression datasets of CSCs from six studies were subjected to connectivity map to identify drugs that may ameliorate gene expression patterns unique to CSCs...