纳米粒子在靶向肿瘤干细胞治疗癌症中的应用

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) can self-renew to form new tumors and consistently proliferate, which is considered as the root cause of chemotherapy resistance, relapse, and metastasis. Meanwhile, CSCs are resistant to standard chemotherapeutics and radiation therapy. Therefore, effectively eliminating CSCs is the key to curing cancers. Compared with current therapeutics, the agents loaded in nanocarriers can achieve better stability, greater bioavailability and longer circulation time. Nanoparticles can also be applied to hyperthermia and other therapies. Recently, considerable success has been achieved in application of nanotechnology to target CSCs. This review overviews the research on anti-CSCs therapies in chemotherapy, genetic therapy and hyperthermia. Combination therapy and multi-targeted nanomedicine will be effective ways to cure cancer and highlight the promising future in theranostic nanomedicine.