Abstract

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are one of the most important origins of cancer progression and metastasis. CSCs have unique self-renewal properties and diverse cell membrane receptors that induced the resistance to the conventional chemotherapeutic agents. Therefore, the therapeutic removal of CSCs could result in the cancer cure with lack of recurrence and metastasis. In this regard, targeting CSCs in accordance to their specific biomarkers is a talented attitude in cancer therapy. Various CSCs surface biomarkers have been described, which some of them exhibited similarities on different cancer cell types, while the others are cancer specific and have just been reported on one or a few types of cancers. In this review, the importance of CSCs in cancer development and therapeutic response has been stated. Different CSCs cluster of differentiation (CD) biomarkers and their specific function and applications in the treatment of cancers have been discussed, Special attention has been made on targeted nano-delivery systems. In this regard, several examples have been illustrated concerning specific natural and artificial ligands against CSCs CD biomarkers that could be decorated on various nanoparticulated drug delivery systems to enhance therapeutic index of chemotherapeutic agents or anticancer gene therapy. The outlook of CSCs biomarkers discovery and therapeutic/diagnostic applications was discussed.