• Nanomedicine strategies for targeted treatment of cancer stem cells
  • Elham momeni,1 Mohsen Nabi-Afjadi,2,* Amir Mansour Moeini,3
    1. Department of Biochemistry, Semnan University of Medical Sciences
    2. Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Tarbiat Modares
    3. Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences


  • Introduction: Rare subpopulations of cancer cells with the ability to self-renew and initiate tumors are known as cancer stem cells (CSCs). It is thought that CSCs play a crucial part in metastasis, relapse, tumorigenesis, and treatment resistance. Due to several issues, such as low solubility, stability, quick clearance, inadequate cellular uptake, and intolerable cytotoxicity, conventional therapies may not be able to completely remove CSCs. As a result, creating therapeutic approaches that work against CSCs is essential to boosting the effectiveness of cancer treatment. Compared to traditional systemic therapy techniques, nanoparticle-based therapies may offer more selectivity, decreased toxicity, longer clearance periods, and better efficacy, making them a promising delivery method for the treatment of cancer. According to studies, functionalizing nanoparticles like carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with antibodies improves their ability to recognize cancer cells, prolongs their concentration within the tumor, and boosts their effectiveness as a treatment. This review focuses on the characteristics of CSCs associated with tumor drug resistance and outlines contemporary nanomedicine techniques that may serve as the foundation for innovative combination treatments aimed at eradicating CSCs and metastatic disease
  • Methods: Search strategy A comprehensive search was conducted in several electronic databases, including Google Scholar, PubMed, and Web of Science, to identify relevant articles published between 2005 and 2025. All relevant Mesh terms, appropriate search field tags, applicable synonyms, and specific sub terms were added to the final search strategy. We used a combination of keywords and topics, including, “Nanomaterials”, “carbon nanotubes”, “Cancer stem cells”, “Antibody”, “Selective targeting” and “cancer therapy”. Inclusion and exclusion criteria Articles that addressed the functionalized carbon nanotubes with antibodies and their ability to target CSCs were included. Seventy chosen articles were used to obtain data. Articles written in languages other than English and unrelated to CSCs and nanoparticles were disqualified.
  • Results: GBMCD133+ cells were specifically targeted and eliminated, but GBM-CD133- cells persisted, as shown by Chung-Hao Wang & colleagues in 2011. According to their research, anti-CD133-SWNTs may be used as a thermal-coupling agent to efficiently target and eliminate GBM CSCs both in vitro and in vivo (C.-H. Wang et al., 2011). According to research done in 2015 by Achraf Al Faraj et al., using SWCNTs coupled with CD44 antibodies to target the tumor location in the mammary fat pad improved sensitivity (Al Faraj, Shaik, Al Sayed, Halwani, & Al Jammaz, 2016). Studies by Xian Wang and colleagues in 2023 demonstrated that functionalizing CNTs with an anti-CD44 antibody, which identifies the GBM cell surface-enriched antigen CD44, improves treatment efficiency by increasing CNT identification of cancer cells and extending CNT enrichment within the tumor (X. Wang et al., 2023). Miaozhong Ni and colleagues (2015) showed that Ap-SAL-NP could effectively and precisely transport salinomycin to CD133+ osteosarcoma CSCs, causing selective toxicity against these cells. Their results therefore show that Ap-SAL-NP could reach positive effectiveness in osteosarcoma, as it could successfully target and destroy CD133+ osteosarcoma CSCs (Ni et al., 2015). DOX-loaded SWNT-CHI-HA nanotubes demonstrated great drug loading efficiency, regulated and sustained release, and cancer cell targeting in 2015, according to Yunfei Mo. The SWNT-CHI-HA-DOX was more harmful to HeLa cells than it was to normal cells and tissues (Mo et al., 2015). Al Faraj, A., Shaik, A. S., Al Sayed, B., Halwani, R., & Al Jammaz, I. (2016). Specific targeting and noninvasive imaging of breast cancer stem cells using single-walled carbon nanotubes as novel multimodality nanoprobes. Nanomedicine, 11(1), 31-46. Mo, Y., Wang, H., Liu, J., Lan, Y., Guo, R., Zhang, Y., . . . Zhang, Y. (2015). Controlled release and targeted delivery to cancer cells of doxorubicin from polysaccharide-functionalised single-walled carbon nanotubes. Journal of Materials Chemistry B, 3(9), 1846-1855. Ni, M., Xiong, M., Zhang, X., Cai, G., Chen, H., Zeng, Q., & Yu, Z. (2015). Poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles conjugated with CD133 aptamers for targeted salinomycin delivery to CD133+ osteosarcoma cancer stem cells. International journal of nanomedicine, 2537-2554. Wang, C.-H., Chiou, S.-H., Chou, C.-P., Chen, Y.-C., Huang, Y.-J., & Peng, C.-A. (2011). Photothermolysis of glioblastoma stem-like cells targeted by carbon nanotubes conjugated with CD133 monoclonal antibody. Nanomedicine: nanotechnology, biology and medicine, 7(1), 69-79. Wang, X., Gong, Z., Wang, T., Law, J., Chen, X., Wanggou, S., . . . Dong, W. (2023). Mechanical nanosurgery of chemoresistant glioblastoma using magnetically controlled carbon nanotubes. Science Advances, 9(13), eade5321.
  • Conclusion: Because of their heterogeneity, medication resistance, and intricate connection to tumor recurrence, cancer stem cells (CSCs) have emerged as one of the major barriers to the radical cure of cancers. CSCs must be left out of the therapy without killing non-CSCs. A lot of work has recently gone into creating effective therapies to eradicate CSCs. The in vitro and in vivo investigations showed that because of their unique characteristics, nanomaterials have a lot of potential to enhance the therapeutic effect on CSCs.Based on the findings of several investigations, we have concluded that medications might be delivered to CSCs selectively and effectively using nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes, which would cause selective toxicity against CSCs. Thus, our findings imply that carbon nanotubes may be a viable target for medication delivery to CSCs and that destroying CSCs may effectively stop their proliferation. Because it can efficiently target and destroy CSCs, we anticipate that nanomaterial linked with antibody may have good effectiveness in malignancies.
  • Keywords: Nanomaterials; Carbon nanotubes; cancer stem cells; drug resistance; Selective targeting