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MicroRNAs in Stem Cells and Cancer Stem Cells

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Book cover MicroRNA in Development and in the Progression of Cancer

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Abstract

Cancer is currently a leading cause of death worldwide, taking millions of lives yearly. Estimates indicate that this tragic trend will continue and even increase over time (GLOBOCAN 2008 v2.0, http://globocan.iarc.fr). Currently, lung, liver, colon, and breast cancers are responsible for the majority of cancer deaths (Int J Cancer 132:1133–1145, 2013) and so a concerted effort is being made to find the mechanisms underlying carcinogenesis, disease progression, and chemotherapeutic resistance in order to uncover novel pathways that may be targeted by anticancer therapies. Evidence increasingly supports the hypothesis that cancers arise from stem cells as much as healthy tissues do. However, cancer stem cells are able to evade the growth programs imposed on normal stem cells, leading to disease. Specifically targeting cancer stem cells might prove to be an effective therapeutic strategy since this would eliminate the source of new cancer cells. Unfortunately, cancer stem cells are able to enter a dormant state in which they are resistant to standard therapies. Recent findings have indicated that microRNAs are critical regulators of many aspects of stem cell biology including entry and maintenance of the dormant state. Here, we discuss evidence supporting the cancer stem cell theory and how targeting of microRNA-dependent pathways might be used to coax cancer stem cells out of dormancy and into the path of chemotherapeutics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and New Jersey Medical School Rutgers, 185 South Orange Ave, MSB, Room E-579, 07103, Newark, NJ, USA

    Bernadette Bibber, Garima Sinha, Shyam A. Patel & Pranela Rameshwar PhD

  2. Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, MO, USA

    Ryan D. Mohan

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  1. Bernadette Bibber
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  2. Garima Sinha
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  3. Shyam A. Patel
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  4. Pranela Rameshwar PhD
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  5. Ryan D. Mohan
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Correspondence to Pranela Rameshwar PhD .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Cancer Institute Mouse Cancer Genetics Program, Frederick, Maryland, USA

    Shree Ram Singh

  2. UMDNJ-NJ Medical School, Newark, New Jersey, USA

    Pranela Rameshwar

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Bibber, B., Sinha, G., Patel, S., Rameshwar, P., Mohan, R. (2014). MicroRNAs in Stem Cells and Cancer Stem Cells. In: Singh, S., Rameshwar, P. (eds) MicroRNA in Development and in the Progression of Cancer. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-8065-6_5

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