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Review
. 2021 Oct 12;22(20):10996.
doi: 10.3390/ijms222010996.

Zika Virus: A New Therapeutic Candidate for Glioblastoma Treatment

Maria Giovanna Francipane  1   2 , Bruno Douradinha  1   3 , Cinzia Maria Chinnici  1   3 , Giovanna Russelli  3 , Pier Giulio Conaldi  3 , Gioacchin Iannolo  3
Affiliations
Review

Zika Virus: A New Therapeutic Candidate for Glioblastoma Treatment

Maria Giovanna Francipane et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most aggressive among the neurological tumors. At present, no chemotherapy or radiotherapy regimen is associated with a positive long-term outcome. In the majority of cases, the tumor recurs within 32-36 weeks of initial treatment. The recent discovery that Zika virus (ZIKV) has an oncolytic action against GBM has brought hope for the development of new therapeutic approaches. ZIKV is an arbovirus of the Flaviviridae family, and its infection during development has been associated with central nervous system (CNS) malformations, including microcephaly, through the targeting of neural stem/progenitor cells (NSCs/NPCs). This finding has led various groups to evaluate ZIKV's effects against glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs), supposedly responsible for GBM onset, progression, and therapy resistance. While preliminary data support ZIKV tropism toward GSCs, a more accurate study of ZIKV mechanisms of action is fundamental in order to launch ZIKV-based clinical trials for GBM patients.

Keywords: Zika virus; cancer stem cells; glioblastoma; glioblastoma stem cells; miR34c; nervous system development; neural stem cells.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
ZIKV-based therapeutic approaches. ZIKV can be directly used against GBM for its specific action against GSCs (blue arrow). ZIKV induces apoptosis and reduces growth rate in GSCs. Additional studies strongly suggest that miR34c is responsible for ZIKV-mediated effects in GSCs, thus supporting alternative therapeutic approaches based on miR34c overexpression by means of extracellular vesicles (EVs), pseudoviruses (PVs) or lentivirus (LVs) (green arrow).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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