Could stem cells be used deliver anti-cancer drugs?

It is widely hoped that neural stem cells will eventually be useful for replacing nerves damaged by degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis. But there may be another use: delivering anti-cancer drugs to cancer cells.

Neural stem cells have a tendency to move towards diseased areas (pathotropism). Taking advantage of this selective migration of neural stem cells towards tumour cells researchers led by Karen Aboody eradicated a neuroblastoma cancer in a mouse model. The researchers engineered the stem cells to express an enzyme that activates an anti-cancer drug. The research is published in the journal Public Library of Science (PLoS) ONE, http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0000023.

An article in the journal PLoS Medicine, by Professor Riccardo Fodde (Erasmus Medical Centre, The Netherlands), discusses the Aboody research. Professor Fodde says the pathotropism characteristic of neural stem cells “makes them particularly attractive candidates not only to replace damaged tissue in degenerative pathologies, but also to deliver therapeutic molecules in patients with disseminated metastatic cancer.”

However, it is too early to know whether this study in mice will lead to a valuable treatment for humans with cancer.

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