The impact of cellular environment on drug screening.

There are various reasons for drug failure in the developmental stage including toxicity, adverse effects and inefficacy. This is likely due to the differences in drug behavior between a simple and controlled cell culture system to that of a more complex whole organism environment. While the use of human phenotypical cells relevant to the condition may provide more accurate screening results, they are susceptible to producing false positives as cells are continuously influenced by constant chemical and physical interaction with the surrounding microenvironment.

Re-Sensitizing Cancer Stem Cells to Conventional Chemotherapy Agents.

Cancer stem cells are found in many cancer types. They comprise a distinct subpopulation of cells within the tumor that exhibit properties of stem cells. They express a number of cell surface markers, such as CD133, CD44, ALDH, and EpCAM, as well as embryonic transcription factors Oct4, Nanog, and SOX2.