Therapeutic Prospects of mRNA-Based Gene Therapy for Glioblastoma

• Main Authors: Xiangjun Tang, Shenqi Zhang, Rui Fu, Li Zhang, Kuanming Huang, Hao Peng, Longjun Dai, Qianxue Chen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2019-11-01
• Series: Frontiers in Oncology
• Subjects: mRNA; gene therapy; glioblastoma; patient-tailored; targeting molecules
• Online Access: https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fonc.2019.01208/full

The treatment of glioblastoma has been a big challenge for decades in the oncological field mainly owing to its unique biological characteristics, such as high heterogeneity, diffusing invasiveness, and capacity to resist conventional therapies. The mRNA-based therapeutic modality holds many superior features, including easy manipulation, rapid and transient expression, and adaptive convertibility without mutagenesis, which are suitable for dealing with glioblastoma's complexity and variability. Synthetic anticancer mRNAs carried by various vehicles act as the ultimate attackers of the tumor across biological barriers. In this modality, specifically targeted glioblastoma treatment can be guaranteed by adding targeting molecules at certain levels. The choice of mRNA-bearing vehicle and administration method is a fully patient-tailored selection. This review covers the advantages and possible limitations of mRNA-based gene therapy, the in vitro synthesis of mRNA, the feasible methods for synthetic mRNA delivery and clinical therapeutic prospects of mRNA-based gene therapy for glioblastoma.