A xenograft brain tumor model was established by the subcutaneous injection of U87MG cells into nude mice to investigate the efficacy of a non-viral vector, arginine-modified polyamidoamine dendrimer (PAMAM-R), in delivering a therapeutic gene, human interferon beta (IFN-β).
The Japan Clinical Oncology Group (JCOG) brain tumor study group has recently began a randomized phase II study to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of combination therapy with TMZ and IFN-β in glioblastomas.
Human malignant gliomas (glioblastomas and anaplastic astrocytomas) are the most frequent brain tumors and are associated with a variety of genetic alterations including retinoblastoma (RB) and p53 gene mutations, loss of interferon alpha and beta (IFNA, IFNB) genes and lack of O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) expression.