Glioblastoma immuno-endothelial multicellular microtissue as a 3D in vitro evaluation tool of anti-cancer nano-therapeutics

Nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems to modulate tumor immune response for glioblastoma treatment

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a primary central nervous system neoplasm, characterized by a grim prognosis and low survival rates. This unfavorable therapeutic outcome is partially attributed to the inadequate immune infiltration and an immunosuppressive microenvironment, which compromises the effectiveness of conventional radiotherapy and chemotherapy. To this end, precise modulation of cellular dynamics in the immune system has emerged as a promising approach for therapeutic intervention. The advent of nanoparticle-based therapies has revolutionized cancer treatment and provided highly effective options. Consequently, various strategically designed nano-delivery platforms have been established to promote the efficacy of immune therapy against GBM. This review delves into the recent advancements in nano-based delivery systems that are designed to modulate immune cells in GBM microenvironment, and explores their multifaceted mechanisms, including the blockade of immune checkpoints, the restraint of immunosuppressive cells, the coordination of tumor-associated macrophages, the activation of innate immune cells, and the stimulation of adaptive immunity. Collectively, this summary not only advances the comprehension involved in modulating antitumor immune responses in GBM, but also paves the way for the development of innovative therapeutic strategies to conquer GBM. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most lethal brain tumor, with a median survival rate of merely 12-16 months after diagnosis. Despite surgical, radiation and chemotherapy treatments, the two-year survival rate for GBM patients is less than 10 %. The treatment of GBM is challenging mainly because several issues associated with the GBM microenvironment have not yet been resolved. Most recently, novel drug delivery approaches, based on the clear understanding of the intrinsic properties of GBM, have shown promise in overcoming some of the obstacles. In particular, taking account of the highly immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment in GBM, recent advancements in nano-based delivery systems are put forward to stimulate immune cells in GBM and unravel their multifaceted mechanisms. This review summarizes the latest nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems to modulate tumor immune response for glioblastoma treatment. Moreover, the development trends and challenges of nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems in modulating the immunity of GBM are predicted, which may facilitate widespread regimens springing up for successfully treating GBM.

Nanosystems at Nexus: Navigating Nose-to-Brain Delivery for Glioblastoma Treatment

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is considered to be one of the most devastating brain tumors with a shorter life expectancy. Several factors contribute to the dismal prognosis of GBM patients including the complicated nature of GBM, the ability of tumor cells to resist treatment, and the difficulty of delivering drugs to the brain because of barriers like the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and blood-tumor barrier (BTB). The unique challenges posed by the BBB in delivering therapeutic agents to the brain have led to the development of innovative nanotechnology-based approaches. By exploiting the olfactory/trigeminal pathway, nanosystems offer a promising strategy for targeted drug delivery to the brain, glioblastoma tumors in particular. This review contemplates varied nanocarriers, including polymeric nanoparticles, lipid-based nanosystems, in situ gel formulations, peptide, and stem cell-based nanoformulations, signifying their utility in brain targeting with minimal systemic side effects. Emerging trends in gene therapy and immunotherapy in the context of GBM treatment have also been discussed. Since safety is a paramount aspect for any drug product to get approved, this review also delves into toxicological considerations associated with intranasal delivery of nanosystems. Regulatory aspects and critical factors for the successful development of intranasal products are also explored in this review. Overall, this review underscores the significant advancements in nanotechnology for nose-to-brain delivery and its potential impact on GBM management.

Nanostructured lipid carriers for enhanced batimastat delivery across the blood-brain barrier: an in vitro study for glioblastoma treatment

Glioblastoma presents a significant treatment challenge due to the blood-brain barrier (BBB) hindering drug delivery, and the overexpression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), which promotes tumor invasiveness. This study introduces a novel nanostructured lipid carrier (NLC) system designed for the delivery of batimastat, an MMP inhibitor, across the BBB and into the glioblastoma microenvironment. The NLCs were functionalized with epidermal growth factor (EGF) and a transferrin receptor-targeting construct to enhance BBB penetration and entrapment within the tumor microenvironment. NLCs were prepared by ultrasonicator-assisted hot homogenization, followed by surface functionalization with EGF and the construct though carbodiimide chemistry. The construct was successfully conjugated with an efficiency of 81%. Two functionalized NLC formulations, fMbat and fNbat, differing in the surfactant amount, were characterized. fMbat had a size of 302 nm, a polydispersity index (PDI) of 0.298, a ζ-potential (ZP) of -27.1 mV and an 85% functionalization efficiency (%FE), whereas fNbat measured 285 nm, with a PDI of 0.249, a ZP of -28.6 mV and a %FE of 92%. Both formulations achieved a drug loading of 0.42 μg/mg. In vitro assays showed that fNbat was cytotoxic and failed to cross the BBB, while fMbat showed cytocompatibility at concentrations 10 times higher than the drug's IC50. Additionally, fMbat inhibited MMP-2 activity between 11 and 62% across different cell lines and achieved a three-fold increase in BBB penetration upon functionalization. Our results suggest that the fMbat formulation has potential for enhancing GB treatment by overcoming current drug delivery limitations and may be combined with other therapeutic strategies for improved outcomes.

Applications and evolution of 3D cancer-immune cell models

Understanding the highly complex tumor-immune landscape is an important goal for developing novel immune therapies for solid cancers. To this end, 3D cancer-immune models have emerged as patient-relevant in vitro tools for modeling the tumor-immune landscape and the cellular interactions within it. In this review, we provide an overview of the components and applications of 3D cancer-immune models and discuss their evolution from 2015 to 2023. Specifically, we observe trends in primary cell-sourced, T cell-based complex models used for therapy evaluation and biological discovery. Finally, we describe the challenges of implementing 3D cancer-immune models and the opportunities for maximizing their potential for deciphering the complex tumor-immune microenvironment and identifying novel, clinically relevant drug targets.

Chemical engineering of zein with polyethylene glycol and Angiopep-2 to manufacture a brain-targeted docetaxel nanomedicine for glioblastoma treatment

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the deadliest adult brain cancer. The current standard-of-care chemotherapy using orally administered temozolomide (TMZ) presents poor improvement in patient survival, emphasizing the compelling need for new therapies. A possible chemotherapeutic alternative is docetaxel (DTX), which possesses higher tumoricidal potency against GBM cells. However, its limited blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability poses a constraint on its application. Nonetheless, nanomedicine offers promising avenues for overcoming this challenge. Angiopep-2 (ANG2) is a peptide that targets the BBB-overexpressed low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR). In this work, we managed, for the first time, to employ a pioneering approach of covalently linking zein protein with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and ANG2 prior to its formulation into nanoparticles (ZNPs) with enhanced stability and LDLR-mediated brain targetability, respectively. Carbodiimide and click chemistry approaches were optimized, resulting in functional modification of zein with around 25% PEG, followed by functional modification of PEG with nearly 100% ANG2. DTX-loaded ZNPs presented 100 nm average size, indicating high suitability for BBB crossing through receptor-mediated transcytosis. ZNPs maintained the cytotoxic effect of the loaded DTX against GBM cells, while demonstrating a safe matrix against BBB cells. Importantly, these brain-targeted ZNPs showcased up to fourfold enhancement in blood-to-brain permeability in a BBB in vitro model, highlighting the potential of this novel approach of BBB targeting in significantly improving therapeutic outcomes for GBM patients. The versatility of the system and the possibility of significantly increasing drug concentration in the brain open the door to its future application in a wide range of other brain-related diseases.

Patient-Derived Melanoma Immune-Tumoroids as a Platform for Precise High throughput Drug Screening

In vitro models are crucial in cancer research, but they must truthfully mimic in vivo tumors for clinical relevance. The development of unprecedent melanoma quadruple multicellular tumoroids (MCTs) is proposed comprising tumor cells, keratinocytes, fibroblasts, and monocytes that replicate tumor architecture, tumor microenvironment, and secretome behavior. These MCTs of 300 µm in diameter secreted keratin and collagen, showing complexity proportional to their cell combinations. Further, closely resembled in vivo tumors in terms of cells organization, growth, progression, and immune behavior. Drug screening using these MCTs demonstrated their potential as patient-derived platforms for precision medicine. These findings highlight the true value of MCTs for studying melanoma biology and testing therapeutic interventions with greater precision and relevance to human disease.

Advancing cancer therapeutics: Integrating scalable 3D cancer models, extracellular vesicles, and omics for enhanced therapy efficacy

Cancer remains as one of the highest challenges to human health. However, anticancer drugs exhibit one of the highest attrition rates compared to other therapeutic interventions. In part, this can be attributed to a prevalent use of in vitro models with limited recapitulative potential of the in vivo settings. Three dimensional (3D) models, such as tumor spheroids and organoids, offer many research opportunities to address the urgent need in developing models capable to more accurately mimic cancer biology and drug resistance profiles. However, their wide adoption in high-throughput pre-clinical studies is dependent on scalable manufacturing to support large-scale therapeutic drug screenings and multi-omic approaches for their comprehensive cellular and molecular characterization. Extracellular vesicles (EVs), which have been emerging as promising drug delivery systems (DDS), stand to significantly benefit from such screenings conducted in realistic cancer models. Furthermore, the integration of these nanomedicines with 3D cancer models and omics profiling holds the potential to deepen our understanding of EV-mediated anticancer effects. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the existing 3D models used in cancer research, namely spheroids and organoids, the innovations in their scalable production and discuss how omics can facilitate the implementation of these models at different stages of drug testing. We also explore how EVs can advance drug delivery in cancer therapies and how the synergy between 3D cancer models and omics approaches can benefit in this process.

Efficient Delivery of Lomitapide using Hybrid Membrane-Coated Tetrahedral DNA Nanostructures for Glioblastoma Therapy

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most aggressive and prevalent primary malignant tumor of the central nervous system. Traditional chemotherapy has poor therapeutic effects and significant side effects due to drug resistance, the natural blood-brain barrier (BBB), and nonspecific distribution, leading to a lack of clinically effective therapeutic drugs. Here, 1430 small molecule compounds are screened based on a high-throughput drug screening platform and a novel anti-GBM drug, lomitapide (LMP) is obtained. Furthermore, a bionic nanodrug delivery system (RFA NPs) actively targeting GBM is constructed, which mainly consists of tetrahedral DNA nanocages (tFNA NPs) loaded with LMP as the core and a folate-modified erythrocyte-cancer cell-macrophage hybrid membrane (FRUR) as the shell. FRUR camouflage conferred unique features on tFNA NPs, including excellent biocompatibility, improved pharmacokinetic profile, efficient BBB permeability, and tumor targeting ability. The results show that the LMP RFA NPs exhibited superior and specific anti-GBM activities, reduced off-target drug delivery, prolonged lifespan, and has negligible side effects in tumor-bearing mice. This study combines high-throughput drug screening with biomimetic nanodrug delivery system technology to provide a theoretical and practical basis for drug development and the optimization of clinical treatment strategies for GBM treatment.

Nanomedicine facilitated cell signaling blockade: difficulties and strategies to overcome glioblastoma

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a highly aggressive and lethal type of brain tumor with complex and diverse molecular signaling pathways involved that are in its development and progression. Despite numerous attempts to develop effective treatments, the survival rate remains low. Therefore, understanding the molecular mechanisms of these pathways can aid in the development of targeted therapies for the treatment of glioblastoma. Nanomedicines have shown potential in targeting and blocking signaling pathways involved in glioblastoma. Nanomedicines can be engineered to specifically target tumor sites, bypass the blood-brain barrier (BBB), and release drugs over an extended period. However, current nanomedicine strategies also face limitations, including poor stability, toxicity, and low therapeutic efficacy. Therefore, novel and advanced nanomedicine-based strategies must be developed for enhanced drug delivery. In this review, we highlight risk factors and chemotherapeutics for the treatment of glioblastoma. Further, we discuss different nanoformulations fabricated using synthetic and natural materials for treatment and diagnosis to selectively target signaling pathways involved in GBM. Furthermore, we discuss current clinical strategies and the role of artificial intelligence in the field of nanomedicine for targeting GBM.

Bacteria associated with glioma: a next wave in cancer treatment

Malignant gliomas occur more often in adults and may affect any part of the central nervous system (CNS). Although their results could be better, surgical excision, postoperative radiation and chemotherapy, and electric field therapy are today's mainstays of glioma care. However, bacteria can also exert anti-tumor effects via mechanisms such as immune regulation and bacterial toxins to promote apoptosis, inhibit angiogenesis, and rely on their natural characteristics to target the tumor microenvironment of hypoxia, low pH, high permeability, and immunosuppression. Tumor-targeted bacteria expressing anticancer medications will go to the cancer site, colonize the tumor, and then produce the therapeutic chemicals that kill the cancer cells. Targeting bacteria in cancer treatment has promising prospects. Rapid advances have been made in the study of bacterial treatment of tumors, including using bacterial outer membrane vesicles to load chemotherapy drugs or combine with nanomaterials to fight tumors, as well as the emergence of bacteria combined with chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and photothermal/photodynamic therapy. In this study, we look back at the previous years of research on bacteria-mediated glioma treatment and move forward to where we think it is headed.