Harnessing nanomedicine for therapeutic intervention in glioblastoma

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Glioblastoma is a type of brain cancer arises from glial cells. Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a subtype of glioblastoma, is the most common and most aggressive primary brain tumor. Currently, GBM therapy includes surgery and post-operative high-doses of radiation and chemotherapy. This therapeutic strategy has a limited contribution in extending the survival rate of GBM patients.

Areas covered: Herein, we focus on harnessing nanoscale drug delivery strategies to treat brain malignancies. Specifically, we briefly discuss the challenges facing GBM therapy such as restricted passage across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and low enhanced permeability and retention effect. Next, we describe different pathways to address these challenges. Finally, we discuss the field of nanomedicine, which emerged as a promising platform for drug delivery to brain malignancies.

Expert opinion: Countless strategies have been applied in preclinical and clinical settings to treat GBM. Among them is the use of different types of nanoparticles (NPs) and viruses with different approaches to cross or bypass the BBB. We suggest here a paradigm shift in thinking about crossing the BBB and tumor penetration as fundamental issues that need to be address in order to improve the therapeutic outcome in GBM

KEYWORDS:

• Glioma
• GBM
• nanoparticles
• nanomedicine
• RNAi
• hyaluronan

Article highlights

• GBM is considered the most aggressive primary CNS malignancy with very low survival rate.

• Currently the therapeutic modalities consists of surgical resection followed by radiation therapy (RT) with concurrent temozolomide (TMZ) chemotherapy with a limited contribution in extending GBM patients’ life expectancy.

• Many hurdles in drug delivery to the brain prevent the development of novel and more potent drugs to overcome this malignancy.

• Harnessing nanomedicine for drug delivery can overcome many of the hurdles due to its ability to be tailor made to achieve many goals such as bypassing the tight restriction to the brain.

• Bypassing the restriction of the BBB can be achieved by different drug delivery pathways such as intracranial injections or intranasal administration or by modifying the NPs to cross through the BBB by different pathways.

• Nanomedicine has the potential of introducing real breakthrough in GBM care.

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Declaration of interest

A Gutkin acknowledges Dr Albert and Doris Fields Trust for her fellowship. This work was supported in part by grants from the I-CORE Program of the Planning and Budgeting Committee and The Israel Science Foundation (Grant 41/11); the FTA: Nanomedicines for Personalized Theranostics of the Israeli National Nanotechnology Initiative; and by The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Nanotechnology Research Fund (D Peer). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.