Title:Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Anti-Cancer Drug Delivery
Volume: 8
Issue: 3
Author(s): Darinka Gjorgieva, Nathan Zaidman and Darko Bosnakovski
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Cancer therapy, drug delivery, mesenchymal stem cells.
Abstract: Self renewal, extensive proliferation and multilineage differentiation ability in vitro and in vivo make mesenchymal
stem cells (MSCs) powerful tools for tissue engineering. Beyond their potential uses in regenerative medicine, an
emerging field of research aims to utilize MSCs for anti-cancer treatment. These strategies are based on the remarkable
ability of MSCs to localize and integrate into tumor stroma and deliver anti-cancer agents (US20100055167,
US20120207725, US20120010499). Genetically engineered MSCs can specifically target different tumor types and
locally secrete therapeutic proteins such as interferons α and β, interleukins 2 and 12 or chemokine CX3CL1
(US20110027239, US20120087901, WO2012071527). In addition, MSCs have also been engineered to deliver oncolytic
viruses, for targeted chemotherapy using enzyme prodrug conversion or for inducing tumor cell apoptosis by delivering
tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) (WO2012106281). The patent databases FPO and
Delphion were used to locate patents that were published between 2005 and 2013. Here, we present the current progress
and the most recent patents on MSC anti-cancer drug delivery systems and discuss future directions in the field.
