Therapeutic targeting of aberrant sialylation for prevention of chemoresistance and metastasis in triple negative breast cancer

Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) is a challenging and aggressive form of breast cancer that is difficult to treat due to its high rates of tumor relapse, metastasis, chemoresistance and lack of targeted therapies. Nanocarrier-based therapies hold promise in TNBC treatment as they can deliver therapeutic agents specifically to cancer cells with increased bioavailability and efficacy. One promising approach is targeting sialylation, a process that adds sialic acid residues to growing glycan chains of glycoproteins and glycolipids. Aberrant sia-lylation has been linked to the survival of Breast Cancer Stem Cells (BCSCs) and the occurrence of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) in TNBC. Inhibiting sialylation may therefore offer a way to eliminate BCSCs and prevent EMT, leading to a more effective TNBC treatment. However, current therapeutic strategies for inhibiting sialylation have limitations, such as off-target effects, low bioavailability and stability. Nanocarrier-based approaches can overcome these limitations by precisely delivering therapeutic agents to their target sites. In this review, we discuss various nanotechnology-based approaches for targeting abnormal sialylation to eliminate BCSCs and inhibit EMT in TNBC.