Aminopeptidase N: A therapeutic target in human liver cancer stem cells / 国际药学研究杂志

ABSTRACT

Liver cancer stem cells (LCSC) play the critical role in hepatocellular carcinoma development and maintenance. They are generally dormant or slowly cycling tumor cells that have the ability to reconstitute tumors. LCSC associate closely with tumor resistance to chemo/radiation therapy, tumor relapse and metastasis, and can be identified and separated with some special surface markers from hepatocellular carcinoma, such as CD133, CD90, CD44, CD24 and EpCAM to investigate the biological behaviors of them. Early studies showed that these markers can be regarded as special surface markers of liver cancer stem cells. Recent studies found that aminopeptidase N (APN, CD13+) cells in hepatocellular carcinoma have biological characteristics of stem cells and demonstrated that CD13 is a marker for semiquiescent CSC in human liver cancer cell lines and clinical samples and that targeting these cells might provide a way to treat this disease. In this review, we introduce the structure and the main function of CD13, liver cancer stem cells source and identification, CD13+ CSC in hepatocellular carcinoma and combination therapy in the treatment of liver cancer.