Suppression of Esophageal Cancer Stem-like Cells by SNX-2112 Is Enhanced by STAT3 Silencing

Acacetin restrains the malignancy of esophageal squamous carcinoma cells via regulating JAK2/STAT3 pathway

Acacetin is a natural flavonoid compound found in diverse plants, which has strong anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer activities. This work aimed at investigating how acacetin functions on esophageal squamous carcinoma cells. In this work, esophageal squamous carcinoma cell lines were subjected to increasing doses of acacetin, and the proliferative, migrative, invasive and apoptotic phenotypes were evaluated by a series of in vitro experiments. Genes related to acacetin and esophageal cancer were predicted by bioinformatics analysis. The levels of apoptosis-relevant proteins and JAK2/STAT3 pathway-relevant proteins in esophageal squamous carcinoma cells were probed by Western blot. It was revealed that acacetin could block the growth and aggressiveness of TE-1 and TE-10 cells and promote the apoptosis. Acacetin treatment induced bax's expression and repressed bcl-2's expression. Notably, acacetin inhibits JAK2/STAT3 pathway in esophageal squamous carcinoma cells. In summary, acacetin inhibits the malignant progression of esophageal squamous carcinoma via restraining JAK2/STAT3 signaling.

Combinatorial Strategies to Target Molecular and Signaling Pathways to Disarm Cancer Stem Cells

Cancer is an urgent public health issue with a very huge number of cases all over the world expected to increase by 2040. Despite improved diagnosis and therapeutic protocols, it remains the main leading cause of death in the world. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) constitute a tumor subpopulation defined by ability to self-renewal and to generate the heterogeneous and differentiated cell lineages that form the tumor bulk. These cells represent a major concern in cancer treatment due to resistance to conventional protocols of radiotherapy, chemotherapy and molecular targeted therapy. In fact, although partial or complete tumor regression can be achieved in patients, these responses are often followed by cancer relapse due to the expansion of CSCs population. The aberrant activation of developmental and oncogenic signaling pathways plays a relevant role in promoting CSCs therapy resistance. Although several targeted approaches relying on monotherapy have been developed to affect these pathways, they have shown limited efficacy. Therefore, an urgent need to design alternative combinatorial strategies to replace conventional regimens exists. This review summarizes the preclinical studies which provide a proof of concept of therapeutic efficacy of combinatorial approaches targeting the CSCs.