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Brain cancer stem cells

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Abstract

Cancers comprise heterogeneous cells, ranging from highly proliferative immature precursors to more differentiated cell lineages. In the last decade, several groups have demonstrated the existence of cancer stem cells in both nonsolid solid tumors, including some of the brain: glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), medulloblastoma, and ependymoma. These cells, like their normal counterpart in homologous tissues, are multipotent, undifferentiated, self-sustaining, yet transformed cells. In particular, glioblastoma-stem like cells (GBSCs) self-renew under clonal conditions and differentiate into neuron- and glia-like cells, with aberrant, mixed neuronal/astroglial phenotypes. Remarkably, upon subcutaneous and intracerebral transplantation in immunosuppressed mice, GBSCs are able to form secondary tumors that closely resemble the human pathology, a property retained also throughout serial transplantation. The search is up for the identification of the markers and the molecular mechanisms that underpin the tumorigenic potential of these cells. This is critical if we aim at defining new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of malignant brain tumors. Lately, it has been shown that some key regulatory system that plays pivotal roles in neural stem cell physiology can also regulate the tumorigenic ability of cancer stem cells in GBMs. This suggests that the study of cancer stem cells in brain tumors might help to identify new and more specific therapeutic molecular effectors, with the cancer stem cells themselves representing one of the main targets, in fact the Holy Grail, in cancer cell therapy. This review includes a summary review on brain cancer cells and their usefulness as emerging targets in cancer cell therapy.

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Acknowledgments

ALV is an awardee of a grant from Associazione Italiana Ricerca sul Cancro (AIRC).

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biosciences and Biotechnology, University of Milan Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 2, Building U3, 20126, Milan, Italy

    Sara G. M. Piccirillo & Angelo L. Vescovi

  2. StemGen SpA, Piazza della Scienza 2, Building U3, 20126, Milan, Italy

    Elena Binda, Roberta Fiocco & Angelo L. Vescovi

  3. Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Rm 5403, Bldg149, 13th street, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA

    Khalid Shah

Authors
  1. Sara G. M. Piccirillo
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  2. Elena Binda
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  3. Roberta Fiocco
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  4. Angelo L. Vescovi
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  5. Khalid Shah
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Correspondence to Angelo L. Vescovi or Khalid Shah.

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Piccirillo, S.G.M., Binda, E., Fiocco, R. et al. Brain cancer stem cells. J Mol Med 87, 1087–1095 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00109-009-0535-3

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