Salinomycin can effectively kill ALDHhigh stem-like cells on gastric cancer

Salinomycin is a novel identified cancer stem cells (CSCs) killer. Higher ALDH activity represents CSCs characterization. Here, we screened ALDH activities on several gastric cancer cell lines and divided them into ALDHhigh and ALDHlow gastric cancer groups. ALDHhigh cancer cells (NCI-N87 and SNU-1) disclosed more CSCs characteristics, such as higher levels of Sox2, Nanog and Nestin, more floating spheroid bodies, more colony formation and more resistance to conventional chemotherapeutic drugs 5-Fu and CDDP, compared to these parameters observed in ALDHlow cancer cells (P < 0.01). Importantly, ALDHhigh cancer cells are relatively sensitive to salinomycin when compared to ALDHlow cancer cells (P < 0.01). Our results confirmed ALDH as functional marker of CSCs population on gastric cancer. Salinomycin might be selective therapy for CSCs fraction, which is resistant to conventional anticancer drugs 5-Fu and CDDP.