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Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are transformed form of normal stem cells within heterogeneous mixture of cancer cells. These are mainly responsible for recurrence of cancer after treatment because of their ability to develop resistance against chemo and radiotherapy due to various factors such as, activation of signalling pathways important for self-renewal, DNA repair capacity, microenvironment and expression of ABC transporters. Targeting these mechanisms as potential factors can eliminate CSCs which eventually decreases cancer recurrence. This review focuses on the characteristics of CSCs, their role in development of resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy along with the therapeutic potential targets for successful elimination of CSC population.

Widespread and irrational use of antibiotics results in the development of antibiotic‐resistant bacteria. Thus, there is a need to develop novel antibacterial agents in order to replace conventional antibiotics and to increase the efficacy of already existing antibiotics by combining them with other materials. Herein, a single‐step antibiotic‐mediated synthesis of antibiotic‐conjugated gold nanoparticles is reported. In this single‐step method antibiotic Kanamycin, an aminoglycoside itself plays the role of reducing as well as capping agent by reducing gold salt into gold nanoparticles. The kanamycin‐conjugated gold nanoparticles (Kan‐AuNPs) were confirmed by UV–Visible spectroscopy and further physico‐chemically characterized by various instrumental techniques. Synthesized Kan‐AuNPs showed broad‐spectrum antibacterial activity against Gram‐positive Staphylococcus aureus as well as Gram‐negative Escherichia coli bacterial strains. They are also found to be effective against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and pathogenic E. coli isolated from urinary tract infections (UTIs) patients, which are responsible to cause hospital‐acquired infections like nosocomial, burn wound and UTIs. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of Kan‐AuNPs is 50 μg ml−1 for S. aureus and E. coli, 125 μg ml−1 for P. aeruginosa and 100 μg ml−1 for E. coli isolated from UTIs patients. It is also evident that the MIC of Kan‐AuNPs for antibacterial activity is lower as compared to antibiotic kanamycin alone for all bacterial strains. Hence, the one‐step strategy of synthesis for Kan‐AuNPs is a suitable strategy for fighting infectious bacterial strains in hospitals, healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry.