Cytokine Gene Therapy of Malignant Glioma by Means of DNA/Liposomes

Abstract

During the past two decades, there have been major advances in our understanding of tumor-associated genes that control cell growth and differentiation and in techniques using a variety of viral and nonviral vectors for delivering genes into mammalian cells. These developments have provided us with opportunities of gene therapy for cancer patients, and there is a rapidly growing number of cancer gene therapies worldwide. In this chapter, molecular abnormalities in the evolution of malignant glioma and recent basic experimental studies of gene therapy are reviewed. Our approach to gene therapy for brain tumors is selective in vivo gene transfer by means of immunoliposomes entrapping a plasmid vector. We have demonstrated in our experimental studies that a remarkable antitumor effect could be obtained by intratumoral injection of the liposome-entrapped interferon-β gene or the tumor necrosis factor-α gene.