Membrane Nanovesicle Systems for Delivery of Therapeutic Nucleic Acids to Glioblastoma

Glioblastoma is a devastating disease with a high mortality rate. Conventional therapies such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy are used to treat it. However, the recurrence rate of glioblastoma is high, and the average lifespan, even with treatment, is 12-15 months. Therefore, more effective therapeutic modalities are needed to effectively treat glioblastoma. One novel approach is gene therapy using various types of therapeutic genes and delivery carriers such as virus, liposome, and polymeric carriers, each of which has pros and cons. Recently, cell-membrane nanovesicle (CMNV) systems have been developed to deliver genes into glioblastoma. CMNVs have some advantages over other types of delivery carriers. First, CMNVs are highly biocompatible and cause no remarkable toxicity to cells. Second, CMNVs can have a long circulation time in the blood due to their low interaction with blood components. Third, CMNVs are easy to modify with ligands to enable targeted delivery of therapeutic genes to glioblastoma. Fourth, CMNVs can form hybrid nanovesicles with lipids or polymers to provide additional functions. In this review, we describe the current progress in using CMNVs to deliver genes to glioblastoma and various delivery routes to glioblastoma. The strategies described here for preparing and applying CMNVs could facilitate successful gene therapy for glioblastoma.