RESUMEN
Cancer stem cells (CSCs), with their ability of self-renewal, unlimited proliferation, and multi-directional differentiation, contribute to tumorigenesis, metastasis, recurrence, and resistance to conventional therapy and immunotherapy. Eliminating CSCs has long been thought to prevent tumorigenesis. Although known to negatively impact tumor prognosis, research revealed the unexpected role of iron metabolism as a key regulator of CSCs. This review explores recent advances in iron metabolism in CSCs, conventional cancer therapies targeting iron biochemistry, therapeutic resistance in these cells, and potential treatment options that could overcome them. These findings provide important insights into therapeutic modalities against intractable cancers.
RESUMEN
Tumor microenvironment (TME) plays an important role in tumor progression, metastasis and therapy resistance. Remodeling the TME has recently been deemed an attractive tumor therapeutic strategy. Due to its complexity and heterogeneity, remodeling the TME still faces great challenges. With the great advantage of drug loading ability, tumor accumulation, multifactor controllability, and persistent guest molecule release ability, mesoporous nanodrug delivery systems (MNDDSs) have been widely used as effective antitumor drug delivery tools as well as remolding TME. This review summarizes the components and characteristics of the TME, as well as the crosstalk between the TME and cancer cells and focuses on the important role of drug delivery strategies based on MNDDSs in targeted remodeling TME metabolic and synergistic anticancer therapy.