HEDGEHOG SIGNALING PATHWAY ANTAGONIST CANCER TREATMENT

摘要

The present invention provides methods and compositions for treating tumorigenic cells (e.g., mammary progenitor cancer cells), with hedgehog signaling pathway antagonists (e.g., Cyclopamine or analogs thereof), as well as methods and compositions for screening hedgehog signaling pathway antagonists for their ability serve as anti-neoplastic agents capable of killing tumorigenic cells. The present invention provides methods for identifying tumorigenic cells based on increased expression of a hedgehog signaling pathway component (e.g. PTCHl, Dih, GUI, GUI, Bmi-1, and VEGF), methods of obtaining enriched populations of tumorigenic cells, and methods of causing mammary progenitor cells to proliferate and/or differentiate.