Impact of Nanotechnology on Glioblastoma Studies: From Brain Stem Cells to Neoplastic Development and Cancer Gene Therapy

The brain malignant tumor <i>Glioblastoma multiforme</i> (GBM) has a median survival of 14-16 months using current treatments; thus, understanding the pathology of GBM is crucial for proposing new therapies and increasing overall survival outcomes. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze different elements, particularly growth factors and the related signal transduction pathways, which play a role in brain neoplastic development, from stem cells to established solid brain tumors, and the application of current immunology techniques, molecular biology, and nanotechnology. Targeting growth factors, especially insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-I) (the principal neoplastic development factor) using anti-gene technologies-antisense and triple helix-has previously been shown to produce an immune anti-tumor response (CD8, CD28) through the TK/PI3K/AKT pathway. This immune response was increased using phytochemicals (phenolics), especially nanoparticles (theranostic nanoparticles), by modulating IGF-I through common pathways (IGF-I-R and TK/PI3K/AKT/TLR/MAPK and JAK/STAT). This review demonstrates how studies on central nervous system neoplastic development progressively led to establishing clinical cancer gene therapies, increasing GBM survival by 20-24 months. The presented studies compare the results of cancer gene therapy with other current immunotherapies. Moreover, this research chapter briefly describes the investigations of nanotechnology related to neurotumorigenesis and GBM therapies. The presented studies relate to nanotechnology and compare the results of cancer gene therapy with other current immunotherapies.