Single-Cell Transcriptomics Unveils the Dedifferentiation Mechanism of Lung Adenocarcinoma Stem Cells

Advances in DNA/RNA Sequencing and Their Applications in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive malignancy that poses significant challenges due to high rates of relapse and resistance to treatment, particularly in older populations. While therapeutic advances have been made, survival outcomes remain suboptimal. The evolution of DNA and RNA sequencing technologies, including whole-genome sequencing (WGS), whole-exome sequencing (WES), and RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq), has significantly enhanced our understanding of AML at the molecular level. These technologies have led to the discovery of driver mutations and transcriptomic alterations critical for improving diagnosis, prognosis, and personalized therapy development. Furthermore, single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-Seq) has uncovered rare subpopulations of leukemia stem cells (LSCs) contributing to disease progression and relapse. However, widespread clinical integration of these tools remains limited by costs, data complexity, and ethical challenges. This review explores recent advancements in DNA/RNA sequencing in AML and highlights both the potential and limitations of these techniques in clinical practice.

Cancer stem cells: advances in knowledge and implications for cancer therapy

Cancer stem cells (CSCs), a small subset of cells in tumors that are characterized by self-renewal and continuous proliferation, lead to tumorigenesis, metastasis, and maintain tumor heterogeneity. Cancer continues to be a significant global disease burden. In the past, surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy were the main cancer treatments. The technology of cancer treatments continues to develop and advance, and the emergence of targeted therapy, and immunotherapy provides more options for patients to a certain extent. However, the limitations of efficacy and treatment resistance are still inevitable. Our review begins with a brief introduction of the historical discoveries, original hypotheses, and pathways that regulate CSCs, such as WNT/β-Catenin, hedgehog, Notch, NF-κB, JAK/STAT, TGF-β, PI3K/AKT, PPAR pathway, and their crosstalk. We focus on the role of CSCs in various therapeutic outcomes and resistance, including how the treatments affect the content of CSCs and the alteration of related molecules, CSCs-mediated therapeutic resistance, and the clinical value of targeting CSCs in patients with refractory, progressed or advanced tumors. In summary, CSCs affect therapeutic efficacy, and the treatment method of targeting CSCs is still difficult to determine. Clarifying regulatory mechanisms and targeting biomarkers of CSCs is currently the mainstream idea.

Emerging roles of circular RNAs in regulating the hallmarks of thyroid cancer

Thyroid cancer is a prevalent endocrine malignancy with increasing incidence in recent years. Although most thyroid cancers grow slowly, they can become refractory, leading to a high mortality rate once they exhibit recurrence, metastasis, resistance to radioiodine therapy, or a lack of differentiation. However, the mechanisms underlying these malignant characteristics remain unclear. Circular RNAs, a type of closed-loop non-coding RNAs, play multiple roles in cancer. Several studies have demonstrated that circular RNAs significantly influence the development of thyroid cancers. In this review, we summarize the circular RNAs identified in thyroid cancers over the past decade according to the hallmarks of cancer. We found that eight of the 14 hallmarks of thyroid cancers are regulated by circular RNAs, whereas the other six have not been reported to be correlated with circular RNAs. This review is expected to help us better understand the roles of circular RNAs in thyroid cancers and accelerate research on the mechanisms and cure strategies for thyroid cancers.