Identifying the therapeutic role of CD90 as a key player in cancer treatment for aggressive tumours

Objective: In this study, it was aimed to investigate the role of one of the cancer stem cell biomarkers, CD90 (THY-1) that plays a crucial role in drug efflux and therapy resistance in different types of cancer.Methods: CD90 knockout cells were generated by using CRISPR/Cas9 technology. Colony formation, scratch assay, Boyden chamber and sphere formation were assessed. Chemoresistant cell lines were formed by using the most common therapeutics such as cisplatin, etoposide, cytarabine and paclitaxel and CD90 levels were measured by flow cytometry.Results: Suppression of CD90 led to decreased tumour proliferation, invasion, and migration, colony formation and tumour sphere generation in all cell lines and enhanced sensitivity to chemotherapeutic agents. Elevated CD90 levels were observed in chemoresistant cancer cell lines.Conclusion: These findings underscore CD90's significant contribution to drug resistance in addition to tumour malignancy and suggest that targeting CD90 could enhance the efficacy of cancer therapies.