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Emerging Role of Combination of All-trans Retinoic Acid and Interferon-gamma as Chemoimmunotherapy in the Management of Human Glioblastoma

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Abstract

Glioblastoma is the most malignant and common type of brain tumor with devastating outcome. Because current treatment modalities are mostly ineffective in controlling and curing glioblastoma, new and innovative therapeutic strategies must be developed. This article describes recent advances in chemoimmunotherapy, which is combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy, against glioblastoma. We provide an overview of available treatment options for glioblastomas, gaps in our knowledge of immune recognition of these malignant tumors, and chemotherapeutic and immunotherapeutic agents that need to be further explored for designing novel chemoimmunotherapeutic strategy for the management of human glioblastomas. Our recent study demonstrated that combination of the chemotherapeutic agent all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) and the immunotherapeutic agent interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) could concurrently induce differentiation, apoptotic death, and immune components in two different human glioblastoma cell lines. We propose that combination of ATRA and IFN-γ can become an efficacious chemoimmunotherapy for the treatment of human glioblastoma.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by the grants from Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, American Cancer Society, Department of Defence, and American Lung Association (to A.H.), and also National Institutes of Health (to N.L.B and S.K.R.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, 29425, USA

    Azizul Haque, Naren L. Banik & Swapan K. Ray

  2. Children’s Research Institute, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, 29425, USA

    Azizul Haque

  3. Hollings Cancer Center, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, 29425, USA

    Azizul Haque, Naren L. Banik & Swapan K. Ray

  4. Department of Neurosciences, Medical University of South Carolina, 96 Jonathan Lucas Street, P.O. Box 250606, Charleston, SC, 29425, USA

    Naren L. Banik & Swapan K. Ray

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  1. Azizul Haque
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  2. Naren L. Banik
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Correspondence to Swapan K. Ray.

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Special issue in honor of Naren Banik.

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Haque, A., Banik, N.L. & Ray, S.K. Emerging Role of Combination of All-trans Retinoic Acid and Interferon-gamma as Chemoimmunotherapy in the Management of Human Glioblastoma. Neurochem Res 32, 2203–2209 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-007-9420-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-007-9420-z

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