IBN Discovers Human Neural Stem Cells with Tumor Targeting Ability – A Promising Discovery for Breast Cancer Therapy

Researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) have found that neural stem cells have the ability to target tumor cells outside the central nervous system. This was demonstrated with breast cancer cells and published in the journal, Stem Cells.

Dr. Shu Wang, leader of the research team, discovered that these neural stem cells could be used to treat breast cancer. Their ability to treat brain tumors has been researched in previous studies, but this was the first study to show that the iPS (human induced pluripotent stem) cell derived neural stem cells could target tumors outside the central nervous system, both on primary and secondary tumors. 

Researchers injected NSC's loaded with a suicide gene (herpes simplex virus thymidine) into mice with breast tumors. They used baculoviral vectors, or gene carriers engineered from an insect virus (baculovirus), which won't replicate in human cells, making the carriers less harmful for clinical use. A prodrug activated the suicide gene to kill the cancer cells upon contact. 

Imaging results showed the NSCs homing in on the breast tumors, and accumulating in other organs that were infected with cancer cells. The mice survived 5 days longer than those that were not injected. This shows how the NSCs inhibit tumor growth and proliferation. 

Dr Shu Wang states that improving and optimizing the treatment will allow it to cripple tumor growth. iPS cells prove to be less laborious and more suitable for large scale manufacture than collecting and expanding primary cells from individual patients. Additionally, the iPS cells are derived from adult cells, which bypasses the ethical issue of using human embryos. Also, since the iPS cells are developed from the patients own cells, they are less likely to be rejected. 

Source: http://insciences.org/article.php?article_id=10742