Judit Sessler

Dr. Judit Sessler

Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
orcid

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

5Years (2022-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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20 September 2022 in Cells
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
FVFlóra Vajda
Flóra Vajda
ÁSÁron Szepesi
Áron Szepesi
VGVárady György
Várady György
JSJudit Sessler
Judit Sessler
DKDániel Kiss
Dániel Kiss
AFAndrás Füredi
András Füredi
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) or fibroblasts are one of the most abundant cell types in the tumor microenvironment (TME) exerting various anti- and pro-apoptotic effects during tumorigenesis, invasion, and drug treatment. Despite the recently discovered importance of MSCs in tumor progression and therapy, the response of these cells to chemotherapeutics compared to cancer cells is rarely investigated. A widely accepted view is that these naive MSCs have higher drug tolerance than cancer cells due to a significantly lower proliferation rate. Here, we examine the differences and similarities in the sensitivity of MSCs and cancer cells to nine diverse chemotherapy agents and show that, although MSCs have a slower cell cycle, these cells are still sensitive to various drugs. Surprisingly, MSCs showed similar sensitivity to a panel of compounds, however, suffered fewer DNA double-stranded breaks, did not enter into a senescent state, and was virtually incapable of apoptosis. Our results suggest that MSCs and cancer cells have different cell fates after drug treatment, and this could influence therapy outcome. These findings could help design drug combinations targeting both MSCs and cancer cells in the TME.