Utilizing Neural Stem Cells as Therapeutic Carriers for Protein- and Nanoparticle-Based Therapies in Glioblastoma

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most prevalent and lethal form of primary brain cancer in adults and has no cure to date despite advances in drug discovery in recent decades. With a high incidence rate of recurrence, the median survival for GBM patients remains less than two years even after aggressive standard-of-care treatments. Furthermore, prominent challenges such as treatment resistance and insufficient drug accumulation at the tumor foci necessitate the development of effective new therapies that can efficiently deliver drugs at the invasive tumor sites. Tumor-homing neural stem cell (tNSC) therapy is emerging as a promising treatment for brain cancers due to its innate ability to selectively migrate to the tumorigenic regions. This dissertation explores unique strategies for utilizing tNSCs as 1) drug carriers for protein-based therapy to develop a combination therapy with a novel anti-cancer drug and 2) as nanoparticle carriers to optimize magnetic hyperthermia therapy in investigating treatment options for GBM. These findings demonstrate the potential of tNSCs as tumor-homing cargos to deliver therapeutics not only as single agents but adjuvant therapies that can augment treatments that are already widely utilized in the clinical setting to increase treatment durability in GBM patients.