The use of interleukin 12-secreting neural stem cells for the treatment of intracranial glioma.

Neural stem cells (NSCs) are capable of tracking migrating glioma cells. To exploit this tropism to generate an antitumor T-cell response, particularly against disseminating tumor pockets, we inoculated intracranial glioma-bearing mice with interleukin 12 (IL-12) producing NSCs. Intratumoral therapy with IL-12-secreting NSCs prolonged survival compared to treatment with nonsecretory NSCs or saline. NSCs demonstrated strong tropism for disseminating glioma, and IL-12-secreting NSC therapy was associated with enhanced T-cell infiltration in tumor microsatellites and long-term antitumor immunity. These results indicate that the use of tumor tracking NSCs represents a potent new therapeutic modality for glioma.