Chugai Seiyaku Kabushiki Kaisha

Osamu Natori

Masami Suzuki

Atsuhiko Kato

Hisafumi Okabe

Tatsumi Yamazaki

Koichi Matsubara

Shinta Kobayashi

Takeshi Watanabe

An objective of the present invention is to obtain two types of substantively homogeneous cancer stem cell populations which can be characterized using the cell surface marker Lgr5, and to provide cancer therapeutics using an antibody against a cell membrane molecule specifically expressed in these cancer stem cells by identifying said cell membrane molecule. A further objective is to provide, using an antibody against a cell membrane molecule specifically expressed in cancer stem cells, a reagent for detecting cancer stem cells, and a method for diagnosing and sorting cancer patients. The present inventors discovered that highly pure large intestine cancer stem cells (CSC) can be obtained in a large quantity, and identified the two types of conditions of large intestine CSCs distinguishable through Lgr5 expression. Moreover, the present inventors discovered that an antibody against a cell membrane molecule specifically expressed in said cancer stem cells can damage said cells.

Cancer stem cell-specific molecule

Growing community of inventors

Singapore, Singapore

Osamu Natori