Issue 4, 2021

Wnt signaling activation: targets and therapeutic opportunities for stem cell therapy and regenerative medicine

Abstract

Wnt proteins are secreted morphogens that play critical roles in embryonic development, stem cell proliferation, self-renewal, tissue regeneration and remodeling in adults. While aberrant Wnt signaling contributes to diseases such as cancer, activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling is a target of interest in stem cell therapy and regenerative medicine. Recent high throughput screenings from chemical and biological libraries, combined with improved gene expression reporter assays of Wnt/β-catenin activation together with rational drug design, led to the development of a myriad of Wnt activators, with different mechanisms of actions. Among them, Wnt mimics, antibodies targeting Wnt inhibitors, glycogen-synthase-3β inhibitors, and indirubins and other natural product derivatives are emerging modalities to treat bone, neurodegenerative, eye, and metabolic disorders, as well as prevent ageing. Nevertheless, the creation of Wnt-based therapies has been hampered by challenges in developing potent and selective Wnt activators without off-target effects, such as oncogenesis. On the other hand, to avoid these risks, their use to promote ex vivo expansion during tissue engineering is a promising application.

Graphical abstract: Wnt signaling activation: targets and therapeutic opportunities for stem cell therapy and regenerative medicine

Transparent peer review

To support increased transparency, we offer authors the option to publish the peer review history alongside their article.

View this article’s peer review history

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
25 mar 2021
Accepted
01 jun 2021
First published
01 jun 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Chem. Biol., 2021,2, 1144-1157

Wnt signaling activation: targets and therapeutic opportunities for stem cell therapy and regenerative medicine

C. Bonnet, A. Brahmbhatt, S. X. Deng and J. J. Zheng, RSC Chem. Biol., 2021, 2, 1144 DOI: 10.1039/D1CB00063B

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements