Authors:

Andres Luna

Date Created:

Not specified

Course Title:

Professor:

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About Paper:

In Situ Reprogramming of Microglia and Macrophages in the Tumor Microenvironment to Kill Glioblastoma Glioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive brain cancer with a high recurrence rate, leading to a median survival rate of less than 15 months. Its resistance to existing therapies is mostly caused by highly heterogeneous tumor cells and an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME), dominated by tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). Our project aims to reprogram these immunosuppressive monocytes into anti-tumor effective cells by using a novel bi-specific myeloid cell engager (BiME) that would target Dectin-1 receptors on TAMs and IL13Ra2 receptors on GBM cells simultaneously. We produced the BiME by tumor-targeted oncolytic adenovirus and proceeded to co-culture Ad-BiME infected tumor cells with monocytes for evaluating their anti-tumor killing effect and macrophage activation function of BiME. Preliminary analysis demonstrated that OV-BiME infection significantly reduced GBM cell viability compared to control groups (p < 0.05), confirming its potent anti-tumor effect. These results demonstrate that novel therapeutic strategies using immune tools are suggested as an empowered candidate for overcoming GBM. Andrew Fogarty:

Source:

Washington University in St. Louis / Leadership Alliance-Summer Research Early Identification Program (SR-EIP)

Topics:

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Co-authors:

Andres Luna