“Latest Stem Cells News”

Research has indicated that certain sarcomas come from the mesenchymal stem cells. However, expression of neural stem cells has been noted in others. Identifying and isolating mesenchymal stem cells and neural stem cells relies on finding specific proteins expressed by both types.

In this study, eight different markers representing proteins associated with these two types of stem cells were applied to the 81 tumors. Through cluster analysis, the researchers organized the data into groups showing similar patterns. Two major subgroups of pediatric sarcomas emerged

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Stem cells could be responsible for some forms of aggressive thyroid tumors (ATC, anaplastic thyroid carcinoma). The discovery was made by a young group of biotechnologists, biologists, and doctors from the Endocrinology department of the General Hospital of the University of Palermo. In the study, published in Plos One, the researchers described a subset of tumor stem cells that were able to proliferate continuously and may be responsible for uncontrolled tumor growth. These cells are resistant to chemotherapy and explain why ATC is so highly fatal in such a short period of time. The authors of the study also discovered which specific markers thyroid stem cells express. With these observations it will soon be possible to identify tumors and target them in new therapeutic approaches. Carla Giordano, the head of the Molecular Endocrinology lab where the study was conducted said, “This discovery creates possibilities for treating not only anaplastic thyroid tumors, but also neoplastic thyroid tumors considered incurable due to their resistance to conventional therapies.”

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The metabolic state of glioma stem cells, which give rise to deadly glioblastomas, is significantly different from that of the brain cancer cells to which they give birth, a factor which helps those stem cells avoid treatment and cause recurrence later.

Researchers with the UCLA Department of Radiation Oncology at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center also found for the first time that these glioma stem cells can change their metabolic state at will, from glycolysis, which uses glucose, to oxidative phosphorylation, which uses oxygen.

The glioma stem cells’ ability to change their metabolic state at will also allow these stem cells that seed new cancer growth to evade treatment and remain alive, said Dr. Frank Pajonk, an associate professor of radiation oncology and senior author of the study.

“We found these cancer stem cells are substantially different in their metabolic states than the differentiated cancer cells they create, and since they act differently, they can’t be killed in the same way,” Pajonk said. “And as yet, we don’t have anything to target these glioma stem cells specifically.”

The study is published this week in the early online edition of the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Cancer cells take up large amounts of glucose, which fuels their grow and spread, and allows them to be differentiated from normal cells under Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanning, which captures metabolic activity. Pajonk and his team found that the glioma stem cells took up much less glucose, which makes them difficult to detect with PET.

Targeting cancer metabolic pathways as a treatment has gained new interest in recent years. However, these cancer stem cells that take up less glucose could evade those treatments by utilizing glucose more efficiently through oxidative phosphorylation, which would not be targeted by such drugs.

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Scientists at the FIRC (Italian Foundation for Cancer Research) Institute of Molecular Oncology of the European Institute of Oncology in Milan have revealed how to eliminate cancer stem cells, the true reason for cancer’s incurability. Researchers led by Pier Giuseppe Pelicci, Director of the Department of Experimental Oncology of the European Institute of Oncology, and Professor of general pathology at the University of Milan, have discovered how cancer stem cells become immortal.

The same oncogenes that are responsible for triggering the process of tumor formation, also impede stem cells from growing old, and allow them to maintain their ability to form new tumor tissue. Basically, early cancer ‘mother’ cells replicate slower than other cells giving them time to repair damage making them virtually immortal. This discovery was published in Nature magazine.

“Current drugs”, a note from the oncologists that worked on the project explained, “are directed at later cancer cells, the ‘daughter cell’. This discovery paves the way for a phase of cures aimed at hitting original cancer stem cells or the mother cells”. New drugs with this function are already in the clinical testing phase on human beings: “In the next 5-10 years these drugs could become available for some types of tumors”. The study was performed in collaboration with the University of Milan.

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