Identifying Novel Effectors of Breast Cancer Stem Cell Population Equilibrium and Survival

Abstract

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients face poor survival outcomes possibly due to the presence of a small, yet aggressive population of cells termed cancer stem cells (CSCs). In breast cancer, CSCs are defined either by high Aldefluor activity or CD44+/CD24- status. To aid the development of efficient CSC-targeted therapies, it is vital to unravel the relationship between these two CSC populations. Here, we explore this relationship showing that these two populations of breast CSCs are not independent. Furthermore, we suggest a novel approach for targeting CSC populations involving inhibition of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). We assess the importance of a lncRNA termed prostate androgen regulated transcript 1 (PART1) in TNBC. We found that PART1 is enriched in both TNBCs and CSCs populations, confers a survival advantage to TNBC cells and maintains CSC pools. Therefore, we present PART1 as a novel therapeutic target that may be capable of targeting CSC populations.