title: Engineered Mesenchymal Stem Cells as an Anti-Cancer Trojan Horse.
abstract: Cell-based gene therapy holds a great promise for the treatment of human malignancy. Among different cells, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are emerging as valuable anti-cancer agents that have the potential to be used to treat a number of different cancer types. They have inherent migratory properties, which allow them to serve as vehicles for delivering effective therapy to isolated tumors and metastases. MSCs have been engineered to express anti-proliferative, pro-apoptotic, and anti-angiogenic agents that specifically target different cancers. Another field of interest is to modify MSCs with the cytokines that activate pro-tumorigenic immunity or to use them as carriers for the traditional chemical compounds that possess the properties of anti-cancer drugs. Although there is still controversy about the exact function of MSCs in the tumor settings, the encouraging results from the preclinical studies of MSC-based gene therapy for a large number of tumors support the initiation of clinical trials.
authors.affiliation: 1 NeuroRepair Department, Mossakowski Medical Research Centre , Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland .
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nowakowski
authors.affiliation: 1 NeuroRepair Department, Mossakowski Medical Research Centre , Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland .
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Drela
authors.affiliation: 1 NeuroRepair Department, Mossakowski Medical Research Centre , Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland .
authors.forename: Justyna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rozycka
authors.affiliation: 1 NeuroRepair Department, Mossakowski Medical Research Centre , Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland .|2 Division of MR Research, Russel H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine , Baltimore, Maryland.
authors.forename: Miroslaw
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Janowski
authors.affiliation: 1 NeuroRepair Department, Mossakowski Medical Research Centre , Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland .
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lukomska