Current Non-viral Gene Therapy Strategies for the Treatment of Glioblastoma

Title:Current Non-viral Gene Therapy Strategies for the Treatment of Glioblastoma

Volume: 28 Issue: 37

Author(s): Antonela Sofía Asad, Alejandro Javier Nicola Candia, Nazareno González, Camila Florencia Zuccato, Adriana Seilicovich and Marianela Candolfi*

Affiliation:

• Instituto de Investigaciones Biomedicas (INBIOMED, UBA-CONICET), Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires,Argentina

Keywords: Glioblastoma, non-viral gene therapy, cationic lipids, dendrimers, dendrigrafts, polymeric micelles, poly (β-amino esters), sleeping beauty transposons.

Abstract:

Background: Glioblastoma constitutes the most frequent and aggressive primary malignant brain tumor in adults. Despite the advances in its treatment, its prognosis remains very poor. Gene therapy has been proposed as a complementary treatment since it may overcome the problem of the blood-brain barrier for systemic therapies, allowing to target tumor cells and their tumor microenvironment locally, without affecting the normal brain parenchyma. In comparison with viral vectors, non-viral vectors became an attractive tool due to their reduced potential of biosafety risks, lower cost, higher availability, and easy storage.

Objective: In this article, we aimed to outline the current preclinical and clinical developments of non-viral delivery systems for therapeutic transgene delivery in malignant gliomas.

Conclusion: Non-viral vectors are efficient tools for gene delivery since they exhibit reduced non-specific cytotoxicity and can go through several modifications in order to achieve high tumor tropism and the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier to access the tumor mass. However, further evaluations in preclinical models and clinical trials are required in order to translate it into the neuro-oncology clinic.

Cite this article as:

Asad Sofía Antonela, Candia Javier Nicola Alejandro, González Nazareno , Zuccato Florencia Camila , Seilicovich Adriana and Candolfi Marianela *, Current Non-viral Gene Therapy Strategies for the Treatment of Glioblastoma, Current Medicinal Chemistry 2021; 28 (37) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/0929867328666210525141243