Engineered human mesenchymal stem cells for neuroblastoma therapeutics.

Engineered human mesenchymal stem cells for neuroblastoma therapeutics. Oncol Rep. 2019 May 08;: Authors: Nieddu V, Piredda R, Bexell D, Barton J, Anderson J, Sebire N, Kolluri K, Janes SM, Karteris E, Sala A Abstract Drug-resistant neuroblastoma remains a major challenge in paediatric oncology and novel and less toxic therapeutic approaches are urgently needed to improve survival and reduce the side effects of traditional therapeutic interventions. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are an attractive candidate for cell and gene therapy since they are recruited by and able to infiltrate tumours. This feature has been exploited by creating genetically modified MSCs that are able to combat cancer by delivering therapeutic molecules. Whether neuroblastomas attract systemically delivered MSCs is still controversial. We investigated whether MSCs engineered to express tumour necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) could: i) cause death of classic and primary neuroblastoma cell lines in vitro; ii) migrate to tumour sites in vivo; and iii) reduce neuroblastoma growth in xenotransplantation experiments. We observed that classic and primary neuroblastoma cell lines expressing death receptors could be killed by TRAIL-loaded MSCs in vitro. When injected in the peritoneum of neuroblastoma-bearing mice, TRAIL-MSCs migrated to tumour sites, but were unable to change the course of cancer development. These results indicated that MSCs ha...
Source: Oncology Reports - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: Oncol Rep Source Type: research