Title:Neuroblastoma and Stem Cell Therapy: An Updated Review
Volume: 20
Issue: 7
Author(s): Manoj Kumar Gupta, Suresh Mallepalli, Amooru Damu and Ramakrishna Vadde*
Affiliation:
- Department of Biotechnology, Bioinformatics Yogi Vemana University, Kadapa 516005, Andhra Pradesh,India
Keywords:
Neuroblastoma, pathogenesis, chemotherapy, stem cell therapy, drugs, carcinogenesis.
Abstract: Neuroblastoma (NBM) is the second leading pediatric cancer that develops from the precursors
of the sympathetic nervous system. To date, surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation serve as
the first-line treatment against NBM in high-risk patients. However, few of these approaches have
severe side effects. Recently, numerous studies have also reported that high chemotherapy doses,
along with stem cell rescue, improvise event-free survival in patients. In this review, the authors attempted
to discuss the pathogenesis associated with NBM and how stem cell therapy can be employed
for the treatment of NBM. Stem cells are a group of multipotent, undifferentiated cells that
are capable of producing all cells in a particular tissue, organ, or organism. They have an endogenous
self-renewal property. This property is tightly modulated for the normal homeostasis within
the body. However, the failure of this process leads to carcinogenesis, including NBM. As these
properties are modulated via various intrinsic as well as extrinsic pathways, the arrest of these pathways
via various drugs may help in controlling various carcinomas, including NBM. Recently,
stem cells were utilized for the diagnosis and treatment of NBM. Nevertheless, most of the studies
conducted to date are mainly designed on bulk-cell analysis, which in turn provides little information
about the population of cells. Thus, the authors believe that, by employing single-cell RNA sequencing
technologies and computational approaches, we can unmask the tumor heterogeneity in
NBM in a more comprehensive way. In the near future, this information will be highly useful for
the identification of biomarkers and treatment associated with NBM in humans.
