Current status and potential challenges of mesenchymal stem cell-based therapy for malignant gliomas

• Published in: Stem cell research & therapy Vol. 9; no. 1; p. 228
• Main Authors: Zhang, Qing, Xiang, Wei, Yi, Dong-Ye, Xue, Bing-Zhou, Wen, Wan-Wan, Abdelmaksoud, Ahmed, Xiong, Nan-Xiang, Jiang, Xiao-Bing, Zhao, Hong-Yang, Fu, Peng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 24-08-2018; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Adults; Angiogenesis; Angiogenesis Inhibitors - therapeutic use; Animals; Apoptosis; Biomarkers, Tumor - genetics; Biomarkers, Tumor - immunology; Bone marrow; Brain cancer; Brain Neoplasms - genetics; Brain Neoplasms - immunology; Brain Neoplasms - pathology; Brain Neoplasms - therapy; Brain tumors; Cancer therapies; Care and treatment; Central nervous system; Chemotherapy; Combined Modality Therapy - methods; Current status; Epilepsy; Genes; Genes, Transgenic, Suicide; Genetic Therapy - methods; Glioblastoma; Glioma; Glioma - genetics; Glioma - immunology; Glioma - pathology; Glioma - therapy; Gliomas; Growth factors; Headache; Humans; Medical prognosis; Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation - methods; Mesenchymal stem cells; Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs); Mesenchymal Stem Cells - cytology; Mesenchymal Stem Cells - immunology; Mesenchyme; Molecular Targeted Therapy - methods; MSC-based therapy; Nervous system; Neural stem cells; Neural Stem Cells - cytology; Neural Stem Cells - immunology; Neural Stem Cells - transplantation; Oncolytic Virotherapy - methods; Patients; Potential challenges; Radiation therapy; Review; Signal Transduction; Solid tumors; Stem cell transplantation; Stem cells; Surgery; Tumors; Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs); Potential challenges; Gliomas; Current status; MSC-based therapy
• ISSN: 1757-6512; 1757-6512
• DOI: 10.1186/s13287-018-0977-z

Glioma, which accounts for more than 30% of primary central nervous system tumours, is characterised by symptoms such as headaches, epilepsy, and blurred vision. Glioblastoma multiforme is the most aggressive, malignant, and lethal brain tumour in adults. Even with progressive combination treatment with surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, the prognosis for glioma patients is still extremely poor. Compared with the poor outcome and slowly developing technologies for surgery and radiotherapy, the application of targeted chemotherapy with a new mechanism has become a research focus in this field.Moreover, targeted therapy is promising for most solid tumours. The tumour-tropic ability of stem cells, including neural stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells, provides an alternative therapeutic approach. Thus, mesenchymal stem cell-based therapy is based on a tumour-selective capacity and has been thought to be an effective anti-tumour option over the past decades. An increasing number of basic studies on mesenchymal stem cell-based therapy for gliomas has yielded complex outcomes.In this review, we summarise the biological characteristics of human mesenchymal stem cells, and the current status and potential challenges of mesenchymal stem cell-based therapy in patients with malignant gliomas.