Synergistic treatment of cancer stem cells by combinations of antioncogenes and doxorubicin

The combined treatment of two or more therapeutic approaches has been demonstrated to be an efficient strategy for cancer stem cells (CSCs) therapy. A new strategy for treatment of CSCs, which have a high self-renewal capacity, is introduced by combination of antioncogenes and doxorubicin (DOX). Cancer cell-associated genes (MDR1 and Sox2) are proved to be up-regulated in CSCs, resulting in increased drug resistant compared with normal cancer cells. In this work, the multidrug resistance of CSCs is reversed by down regulation of the over-expressed cancer cell-associated MDR1 and Sox2 gene, and the enhanced DOX endocytosis is achieved. In addition, the combined therapeutic approach resulted in improved therapeutic effect of CSCs. The combination therapy of CSCs with the down regulation of multidrug resistance and a therapeutic antitumor drug can be a useful strategy in cancer therapy.

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