Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a heterogeneous disease despite its seemingly uniform pathology. Deconvolution of The Cancer Genome Atlas's GBM gene expression data has unveiled the existence of distinct gene expression signature underlying discrete GBM subtypes. Recent conflicting findings proposed that microRNA (miRNA)-10b exclusively regulates glioma growth or invasion but not both. We showed that silencing of miRNA-10b by baculoviral decoy vectors in a glioma cell line resembling the mesenchymal subtype of GBM reduces its growth, invasion and angiogenesis while promoting apoptosis in vitro. In an orthotopic human glioma mouse model, inhibition of miRNA-10b diminishes the invasiveness, angiogenicity and growth of the mesenchymal subtype-like glioma cells in the brain and significantly prolonged survival of glioma-bearing mice. We demonstrated that the pleiotropic nature of miRNA-10b was due to its suppression of multiple tumor suppressors, including TP53, FOXO3, CYLD, PAX6, PTCH1, HOXD10 and NOTCH1. In particular, siRNA-mediated knockdown experiments identified TP53, PAX6, NOTCH1 and HOXD10 as invasion regulatory genes in our mesenchymal subtype-like glioma cells. By interrogating the REMBRANDT, we noted that dysregulation of many direct targets of miRNA-10b was associated with significantly poorer patient survival. Thus, our study uncovers a novel role for miRNA-10b in regulating angiogenesis and suggests that miRNA-10b may be a pleiotropic regulator of gliomagenesis.

Transcriptional targeting using a tissue-specific cellular promoter is proving to be a powerful means for restricting transgene expression in targeted tissues. In the context of cancer suicide gene therapy, this approach may lead to cytotoxic effects in both cancer and nontarget normal cells. Considering microRNA (miRNA) function in post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression, we have developed a viral vector platform combining cellular promoter-based transcriptional targeting with miRNA regulation for a glioma suicide gene therapy in the mouse brain. The therapy employed, in a single baculoviral vector, a glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) gene promoter and the repeated target sequences of three miRNAs that are enriched in astrocytes but downregulated in glioblastoma cells to control the expression of the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSVtk) gene. This resulted in significantly improved in vivo selectivity over the use of a control vector without miRNA regulation, enabling effective elimination of human glioma xenografts while producing negligible toxic effects on normal astrocytes. Thus, incorporating miRNA regulation into a transcriptional targeting vector adds an extra layer of security to prevent off-target transgene expression and should be useful for the development of gene delivery vectors with high targeting specificity for cancer therapy.

Tumor-tropic neural stem cells (NSCs) can be used in the Trojan horse approach as cellular vehicles for targeted delivery of therapeutic agents to distant tumor sites. To realize this cancer therapy potential, it is important to have a renewable source to generate large quantities of uniform human NSCs. Here, we reported that NSCs derived from HES1 human embryonic stem cell line were capable of migrating into intracranial glioma xenografts after systemic injection or after intracranial injection at a site distant from the tumor. To test whether the HES1-derived NSCs can be used for cancer gene therapy, we used a baculoviral vector to introduce the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase suicide gene into the cells and demonstrated that baculovirusmediated transgene expression may last for at least 3 weeks in NSCs. After being injected into the cerebral hemisphere opposite the tumor site and in the presence of ganciclovir, NSCs expressing the suicide gene were able to inhibit the growth of human glioma xenografts and prolong survival of tumor-bearing mice. Our findings suggest that human embryonic stem cells could potentially serve as a clinically viable source for production of cellular vehicles suitable for targeted anticancer gene therapy.

Achievement of specific tumor cell targeting remains a challenge for glioma gene therapy. We observed that the human high mobility group box2 (HMGB2) gene had a low level of expression in normal human brain tissues, but was significantly upregulated in glioblastoma tissues. With progressive truncation of a 5'-upstream sequence of the HMGB2 gene, we identified a 0.5-kb fragment displaying a high transcriptional activity in glioblastoma cells, but a low activity in normal brain cells. To test the feasibility of using the HMGB2 promoter sequence in targeted cancer therapy, we constructed a baculoviral vector expressing the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSVtk) gene driven by the HMGB2 promoter. Transduction with the viral vector induced cell death in glioblastoma cell lines in the presence of ganciclovir (GCV), but did not affect the survival of human astrocytes and neurons. In a mouse xenograft model, intratumor injection of the baculoviral vector suppressed the growth of human glioblastoma cells and prolonged the survival of tumor-bearing mice. Our results suggest that the novel 5' sequence of HMGB2 gene has a potential to be used as an efficient, tumor-selective promoter in targeted vectors for glioblastoma gene therapy.

Transient genetic manipulation of human neurons without chromosomal integration of the transgene would be valuable but has been challenging due to the quiescent nature of these postmitotic cells. In this study, we developed a set of baculoviral vectors for transient transduction in nondividing neurons derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Using a baculoviral vector equipped with the woodchuck hepatitis virus posttranscriptional regulatory element (WPRE), we observed a quick onset of transgene expression as early as day 1 after baculoviral transduction and a high efficiency of up to 80%. Strong transgene expression in the cultured human neurons was observed for more than 1 month and the signal was easily detectable even after 3 months. Using two baculoviral vectors carrying different transgenes, we found that co-transduction at a single neuron level was possible. After transplantation into the brain of nude mice, the baculovirus-transduced human neurons were integrated into the mouse brain and maintained transgene expression for at least 4 weeks, portending the usefulness of this technique in assisting neural transplantation. Therefore, by mediating efficient transient gene expression, baculoviral vectors can provide useful tools for both basic gene function studies in human neurons and therapeutic applications of these cells.