1. Drug persistence – From antibiotics to cancer therapies
- Author
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Karl Kochanowski, Lani F. Wu, Steven J. Altschuler, and Leanna S. Morinishi
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Drug ,medicine.drug_class ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Antibiotics ,Article ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology ,Persistence (computer science) ,03 medical and health sciences ,Drug treatment ,0302 clinical medicine ,Drug Discovery ,medicine ,media_common ,biology ,Applied Mathematics ,Cellular Regulation ,Cancer ,biology.organism_classification ,medicine.disease ,Phenotype ,Computer Science Applications ,030104 developmental biology ,030220 oncology & carcinogenesis ,Modeling and Simulation ,Immunology ,Bacteria - Abstract
Drug-insensitive tumor subpopulations remain a significant barrier to effective cancer treatment. Recent works suggest that within isogenic drug-sensitive cancer populations, subsets of cells can enter a ‘persister’ state allowing them to survive prolonged drug treatment. Such persisters are well-described in antibiotic-treated bacterial populations. In this review, we compare mechanisms of drug persistence in bacteria and cancer. Both bacterial and cancer persisters are associated with slow-growing phenotypes, are metabolically distinct from non-persisters, and depend on the activation of specific regulatory programs. Moreover, evidence suggests that bacterial and cancer persisters are an important reservoir for the emergence of drug-resistant mutants. The emerging parallels between persistence in bacteria and cancer can guide efforts to untangle mechanistic links between growth, metabolism, and cellular regulation, and reveal exploitable therapeutic vulnerabilities.
- Published
- 2018