Abstract
Neural stem cells (NSCs) are generally defined by their dual capacity to self-renew and differentiate into more specialized cell types such as neurons and glia. NSCs have been the object of many studies aimed at neuron replacement therapy in several degenerative conditions of the central nervous system such as Parkinson disease, Alzheimer disease, multiple sclerosis, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Pathotropism (movement towards diseased areas), a yet incompletely understood characteristic of NSCs, makes them particularly attractive candidates not only to replace damaged tissue in degenerative pathologies, but also to deliver therapeutic molecules in patients with disseminated metastatic cancer [1]. By 2000, several studies had shown that upon intracranial transplantation into animal models of brain cancer, NSCs are able to specifically migrate to sites of neoplasia [2–4], possibly in response to chemotactic signals emanating from cancer cells. Perhaps even more surprisingly, this tropism of neural stem cells can be exploited to target extracranial tumors of both neural and non-neural origins [5].
Highlights
Neural stem cells (NSCs) are generally defined by their dual capacity to self-renew and differentiate into more specialized cell types such as neurons and glia
Pathotropism, a yet incompletely understood characteristic of NSCs, makes them attractive candidates to replace damaged tissue in degenerative pathologies, and to deliver therapeutic molecules in patients with disseminated metastatic cancer [1]
By 2000, several studies had shown that upon intracranial transplantation into animal models of brain cancer, NSCs are able to migrate to sites of neoplasia [2,3,4], possibly in response to chemotactic signals emanating from cancer cells
Summary
Neural stem cells (NSCs) are generally defined by their dual capacity to self-renew and differentiate into more specialized cell types such as neurons and glia. NSCs have been the object of many studies aimed at neuron replacement therapy in several degenerative conditions of the central nervous system such as Parkinson disease, Alzheimer disease, multiple sclerosis, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. By 2000, several studies had shown that upon intracranial transplantation into animal models of brain cancer, NSCs are able to migrate to sites of neoplasia [2,3,4], possibly in response to chemotactic signals emanating from cancer cells. The researchers took advantage of the tumor-tropic (selective migration towards cancer cells) properties of neural stem cells engineered to express an anti-cancer prodrug converting enzyme [6]
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