Intranasal Stem-Cell Based Therapy of Glioblastoma

Intranasal delivery of drugs has attracted attention as a promising delivery strategy to the central nervous system (CNS). Drugs or other biologics can be delivered directly and locally to the brain by the application to the nasal cavity thereby avoiding complications associated with the BBB and invasive surgery. Given the tropism of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to brain tumor, there is significant interest in utilizing these cells as therapeutic vehicles. As shown in our most recent publication in Molecular Therapy, MSCs expressing TRAIL and delivered to the nasal cavity travel to intracranial tumors in mice and significantly prolong survival. However, in spite of these promising results, our studies have revealed several limitations that need to be addressed before this therapy is clinically relevant. First, very few stem cells (<5%) reach the brain following intranasal delivery and the majority accumulate in the lungs. Second, imaging of stem cell- based therapeutics is still in its infancy and the development of FDA-approved agents is critical for in vivo applications. Third, very little is known about the kinetics of stem cell migration and quantification of stem cell- based therapies following intranasal delivery. As a result, we propose to address these three problems while examining mechanistic pathways of MSCs migration in the CNS to test the central hypothesis: “Intranasal delivery of MSCs can be optimized for clinical applications and allow for safe and repeated administration of biological therapies in the context of GBM.” In order to test this hypothesis, we now propose to complete the following specific aims: Specific Aim 1: To characterize the migration of MSCs following intranasal administration using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and single photon emission microscopy (SPEM). Specific Aim 2: To determine the role of hypoxia on MSC migration and tumor infiltration in vivo. Specific Aim 3: To evaluate the role of irradiation on MSC migration and tumor infiltration in vivo. Specific Aim 4: To examine the efficacy of MSCs expressing TRAIL, an oncolytic virus, or a ph-responsive nanoparticle in different models of malignant glioma in vivo.