Lung Cancer Stem Cells: An Epigenetic Perspective

Title:Lung Cancer Stem Cells: An Epigenetic Perspective

Volume: 18 Issue: 1

Author(s): Samriddhi Shukla, Sajid Khan, Sonam Sinha and Syed Musthapa Meeran*

Affiliation:

• Laboratory of Cancer Epigenetics, Division of Endocrinology, CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow,India

Keywords: Lung cancer stem cells, epigenetic reprogramming, DNA methylation, chromatin remodeling, miRNAs, stem cell markers.

Abstract: Lung cancer remains the major cause of human mortality among all the cancer types despite the colossal amount of efforts to prevent the cancer onset and to provide the appropriate cure. Recent reports have identified that important contributors of lung cancer-related mortality are the drug resistance and aggressive tumor relapse, the characteristics contributed by the presence of lung cancer stem cells (CSCs). The identification of lung CSCs is inherently complex due to the quiescent nature of lung epithelium, which makes the distinction between the normal lung epithelium and lung CSCs difficult. Recently, multiple researches have helped in the identification of lung CSCs based on the presence or absence of certain specific types of stem cell markers. Maintenance of lung CSCs is chiefly mediated through the epigenetic modifications of their genome. In this review, we will discuss about the origin of lung CSCs and the role of epigenetic modifications in their maintenance. We will also discuss in brief the major lung CSC markers and the therapeutic approaches to selectively target this population of cells.

Cite this article as:

Shukla Samriddhi, Khan Sajid, Sinha Sonam and Meeran Musthapa Syed*, Lung Cancer Stem Cells: An Epigenetic Perspective, Current Cancer Drug Targets 2018; 18 (1) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1568009617666170206104623