Zhenhe Suo (Tumor Stem Cell Research)
Group Leader: Zhenhe Suo M.D., Ph.D.
Group Members:
Zhen Yan (MD, PhD candidate, University of Oslo (Suo is principal tutor)
Wei He (MD, PhD candidate, University of Oslo and University of Zhengzhou (Suo is principal tutor)
Geng Li (MD, PhD candidate, University of Zhengzhou (Suo is principal tutor)
Luo Suxia (MD, PhD candidate, University of Zhengzhou (Suo is principal tutor)
Ping Wang (MD, PhD candidate, University of Oslo (Suo is associate tutor for Ping)
Qinghua Wu (MD, PhD candidate, University of Oslo (Suo is associate tutor for Qinghua)
Mariusz Goschinski (MD, PhD candidate, University of Oslo (Suo is associate tutor for Mariusz)
In this group, we have two major projects towards tumour stem cell research: Application of curcumin and indirubin in treatment of cancer: A tumour stem cell targeting-based molecular and animal experimental study; Stemness-related factors in tumours and tumour stem cell identification.
Project 1:
Application of curcumin and indirubin in treatment of cancer: A tumour stem cell targeting-based molecular and animal experimental study
Our idea or main goal of our present project is to extensively study different combinations of the effective ingredients/extract from selected TCM herbs or medical plants in our cell culture system, based on the principles of both western medicine and TCM, so as to explore new tumour remedy targeting tumour stem cells. Till now, we have chosen the following effective ingredients or medical plant, based on the fact that either the ingredient has been well documented to exert anticancer effect in vitro and in vivo (indirubin), or it is well-known edible herb/ medical plant with definite anticancer roles both proved in tradition and documented in laboratory work. We have already found in our molecular study that indirubin specifically inhibits FGFR, which may provide new modality targeting tumour stem cells since FGF/FGFR signaling is an important issue for tumour stem cells (Zhen et al, Oncogene, Inpress).
Project 2:
Stemness-related factors in tumours and tumour stem cell identification
There are several embryonic stem cells markers which are now discovered shown-up or reexpressed in tumour cells. Further studies indicate that these factors could also be detected in tumours developed from somatic tissues, with evidence indicating that these factors are tumour stem cell associated. Therefore, we coin these factors as tumour-associated embryonic stem cell marker. Through extensive literature analysis, we realized that there were a number of factors identified in different means in different cells. Since tumour stem cells must feature stemness, no matter how different from normal stem cells, study of stemness-related factors becomes very important for us. The purpose of this project is the systemically study all stemness-related factors, both in vitro materials (cell culture) and in vivo (clinical samples and animal experiments), in order to explore their clinicopathological correlations, and molecular mechanism (s) for tumour stem cell maintaining. This knowledge will help us to precisely identify and isolate tumour stem cells from a given tumour tissue.