Abstract

Unmet Need: Small molecules to Control Stem Cell Behavior Invivo

Pranela Rameshwar, Professor, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School

Breast cancer dormancy remains an unresolved issue in the field of cancer biology. Cancer cells can take advantage of the microenvironment such as the bone marrow to evade treatment, mostly to adapt a dormant phase. Since the bone marrow is home of the hematopoietic stem cell, there are limit to the use of high dose chemotherapy to target breast cancer cells within the hematopoietic niche. The seminar will show how mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can be used as cellular delivery of non-coding RNA. MSCs are currently the preferred stem cells for thousands of clinical trials. The advantage of MSCs over other stem cells is mainly due to the ability to be transplanted as `off the shelf’ stem cells, reduced ethical concerns in harvesting the cells, ease in expansion and `plasticity’. The indications for MSCs include, but are not limited to inflammatory diseases, tissue repair and protection, neuronal disorder and, cellular vehicle for drugs and RNA. Thus far, there is no major report of safety issue with MSC transplantation. The seminar will show the efficiency of MSCs to deliver non-coding miRNA in the treatment of breast cancer and then discuss the issue of MSCs crossing the blood brain barrier. The question is whether MSCs may have a memory for homing and if tissue injury changes the homing properties of varied sources of MSCs.  More importantly, small molecules are needed to `harness’ stem cells to achieve the desired outcome.