Photothermal Attenuation of Cancer Cell Stemness, Chemoresistance, and Migration Using CD44-Targeted MoS₂ Nanosheets.

ABSTRACT: Cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) play key roles in chemoresistance, tumor metastasis, and clinical relapse. However, current CSC inhibitors lack specificity, efficacy, and applicability to different cancers. Herein, we introduce a nanomaterial-based approach to photothermally induce the differentiation of CSCs, termed "photothermal differentiation", leading to the attenuation of cancer cell stemness, chemoresistance, and metastasis. MoS₂ nanosheets and a moderate photothermal treatment were applied to target a CSC surface receptor (i.e., CD44) and modulate its downstream signaling pathway. This treatment forces the more stem-like cancer cells to lose the mesenchymal phenotype and adopt an epithelial, less stem-like state, which shows attenuated self-renewal capacity, more response

SUBMITTER: Liu J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10497231 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature