Intravenously Infused Stem Cells for Cancer Treatment

Multilineage-differentiating stress-enduring cells: a powerful tool for tissue damage repair

Multilineage-differentiating stress-enduring (Muse) cells are a type of pluripotent cell with unique characteristics such as non-tumorigenic and pluripotent differentiation ability. After homing, Muse cells spontaneously differentiate into tissue component cells and supplement damaged/lost cells to participate in tissue repair. Importantly, Muse cells can survive in injured tissue for an extended period, stabilizing and promoting tissue repair. In addition, it has been confirmed that injection of exogenous Muse cells exerts anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptosis, anti-fibrosis, immunomodulatory, and paracrine protective effects in vivo. The discovery of Muse cells is an important breakthrough in the field of regenerative medicine. The article provides a comprehensive review of the characteristics, sources, and potential mechanisms of Muse cells for tissue repair and regeneration. This review serves as a foundation for the further utilization of Muse cells as a key clinical tool in regenerative medicine.

Tumor tropic delivery of FU.FA@NSs using mesenchymal stem cells for synergistic chemo-photodynamic therapy of colorectal cancer

To overcome the limitations associated with the targeting abilities of nanotherapeutics and drug loading capacity of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), the present study relies on the combination of MSCs tumor tropism with the controlled release function of nano-based drug delivery platforms to achieve tumor-specific accumulation of chemotherapeutics with minimal off-target effects. 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-containing ceria (CeNPs) coated calcium carbonate nanoparticles (CaNPs) were functionalized with folinic acid (FA) to develop drug-containing nanocomposites (Ca.FU.Ce.FA NCs). NCs were then conjugated with graphene oxide (GO) and decorated with silver nanoparticles (Ag°NPs) to form FU.FA@NS, a rationally designed drug delivery system with O₂ generation capacity that alleviates tumor hypoxia for improved photodynamic therapy. Engineering of MSCs with FU.FA@NSs provided successful loading and long-term retention of therapeutics on the surface membrane with minimal changes to the functional properties of MSCs. Co-culturing of FU.FA@NS.MSCs with CT26 cells upon UVA exposure revealed enhanced apoptosis in tumor cells through ROS-mediated mitochondrial pathway. FU.FA@NSs released from MSCs were effectively taken up by CT26 cells via a clathrin-mediated endocytosis pathway and distributed their drug depots in a pH, H₂O₂, and UVA-stimulated fashion. Therefore, the cell-based biomimetic drug delivery platform formulated in the current study could be considered a promising strategy for targeted chemo-photodynamic therapy of colorectal cancer.

Cancer Stem Cells and the Tumor Microenvironment: Targeting the Critical Crosstalk through Nanocarrier Systems

The physiological state of the tumor microenvironment (TME) plays a central role in cancer development due to multiple universal features that transcend heterogeneity and niche specifications, like promoting cancer progression and metastasis. As a result of their preponderant involvement in tumor growth and maintenance through several microsystemic alterations, including hypoxia, oxidative stress, and acidosis, TMEs make for ideal targets in both diagnostic and therapeutic ventures. Correspondingly, methodologies to target TMEs have been investigated this past decade as stratagems of significant potential in the genre of focused cancer treatment. Within targeted oncotherapy, nanomedical derivates-nanocarriers (NCs) especially-have emerged to present notable prospects in enhancing targeting specificity. Yet, one major issue in the application of NCs in microenvironmental directed therapy is that TMEs are too broad a spectrum of targeting possibilities for these carriers to be effectively employed. However, cancer stem cells (CSCs) might portend a solution to the above conundrum: aside from being quite heavily invested in tumorigenesis and therapeutic resistance, CSCs also show self-renewal and fluid clonogenic properties that often define specific TME niches. Further scrutiny of the relationship between CSCs and TMEs also points towards mechanisms that underly tumoral characteristics of metastasis, malignancy, and even resistance. This review summarizes recent advances in NC-enabled targeting of CSCs for more holistic strikes against TMEs and discusses both the current challenges that hinder the clinical application of these strategies as well as the avenues that can further CSC-targeting initiatives. Central role of CSCs in regulation of cellular components within the TME.