“The cancer stem cells are resistant to conventional therapies and are responsible for tumor relapse after chemotherapy,” says Ji-Xin Cheng, a professor in Purdue University's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Chemistry. “Understanding their unique characteristics and vulnerabilities will enable the development of targeted therapies (to overcome) tumor relapse and metastasis.”

Purdue postdoctoral research associate Junjie Li is a co-first author of a paper appearing in the journal Cell Stem Cell regarding research into “cancer stem cells” that initiate tumor formation.
(Photo credit: Purdue University/Erin Easterling)

New research focuses on targeting cancer stem cells by inhibiting the activities of enzymes needed to carry out a metabolic process called “desaturation” of lipid molecules.

“Unsaturated lipids in the cancer stem cells are very important to maintain the signaling needed to function,” says Cheng, a member of Purdue’s Center for Cancer Research. “Researchers have known about cancer stem cells for a while, but lipid metabolism in these cells is a very new topic. Understanding the lipid metabolism in cancer stem cells opens a new way for cancer detection and treatment.”

The work was performed by researchers at Purdue, Indiana University School of Medicine and Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

Findings are detailed in a research paper that appeared online Dec. 29 in the journal Cell Stem Cell. The paper was published in the journal’s March 2 print issue.

“In this study, we identify and characterize for the first time lipid unsaturation in ovarian cancer stem cells by chemical imaging of single living cells,” says Junjie Li, a research associate who was the paper’s co-first author along with Salvatore Condello, a research assistant professor in the Feinberg School of Medicine.

The paper was authored by Li; Condello; gynecologic oncologist Jessica Thomes-Pepin, formerly at IU and now at Minnesota Oncology; Xiaoxiao Ma, former Purdue postdoctoral research associate; Thomas D. Hurley, professor in the IU Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Daniela Matei, professor in the Feinberg School of Medicine who led the Northwestern team; and Cheng.

The research is ongoing and may progress into clinical studies.