Enhancing neural stem cells as anti-cancer therapeutics
In our lab, we have developed a personalized stem cell therapy to treat cancer in which the patient’s own skin cells are converted into therapeutic induced neural stem cells (iNSCs). iNSCs have the incredible ability to chase cancer. In our lab, we have leveraged this property of iNSCs by arming the cells with tumor-toxic payloads. We then enlist the iNSCs on a “search-and-destroy” mission, in which they can be administered to a patient, find tumors in various locations in the body, and eliminate them by delivering anti-cancer drugs. Moreover, the autologous nature of these iNSCs reduces the risk of immune-rejection upon administration of the cells to the patient.
We continue to enhance and optimize the use of our iNSCs for cancer therapy using a variety of approaches, including cell engineering and combination treatment strategies, to improve therapeutic durability and overcome challenges such as drug resistance. We are exploring the use of our iNSCs in combination with several other drug classes, including chemotherapies, and immunotherapies.
Relevant Publications:
Mercer-Smith, A.R., Buckley, A., Valdivia, A., Jiang, W., Thang, M., Bell, N., Kumar, R.J., Bomba, H.N., Woodell, A.S., Luo, J., Floyd, S.R., and Hingtgen, S.D., 2022. Next-generation Tumor-homing Induced Neural Stem Cells as an Adjuvant to Radiation for the Treatment of Metastatic Lung Cancer. Stem Cell Reviews and Reports, pp.1-20.Satterlee, A.B., Dunn, D.E., Lo, D.C., Khagi, S. and Hingtgen, S., 2019. Tumoricidal stem cell therapy enables killing in novel hybrid models of heterogeneous glioblastoma. Neuro-oncology, 21(12), pp.1552-1564.
Jiang, W., Yang, Y., Mercer-Smith, A.R., Valdivia, A., Bago, J.R., Woodell, A.S., Buckley, A.A., Marand, M.H., Qian, L., Anders, C.K. and Hingtgen, S.D., 2021. Development of next-generation tumor-homing induced neural stem cells to enhance treatment of metastatic cancers. Science Advances, 7(24), p.eabf1526.
