2025 in Scientific Imagery

Noninvasive Treatment Boosts Immune Response Against Glioblastoma

Northwestern Medicine scientists, along with collaborators from the Washington University School of Medicine, have developed a noninvasive nanomedicine approach that may improve the treatment of glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer, according to a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. While immunotherapy has been shown to be effective in many cancers, including lung and breast cancer, it has shown benefit in only a small number of patients with glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive type of primary brain cancer.  “Part of the reason for its failure is the fact that high-grade gliomas in the brain lack the target of those immunotherapy drugs, which are killer T-cells. If you have a cancer that lacks those T-cells, or ‘cold tumors,’ then these drugs don't do much,” said Amy Heimberger, MD, PhD, the Jean Malnati Miller Professor of Brain Tumor Research and a co-author of the study. To address this challenge, the scientists, in collaboration with the laboratory of Chad Mirkin, PhD, professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology, the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology, developed a novel spherical nucleic acid (SNA) nanostructure that specifically targets the cGAS enzyme, an upstream target of the STING pathway (Stimulator of Interferon Genes) pathway.

Caption: Scientists at Northwestern Medicine and the Washington University School of Medicine have created a nose-to-brain therapeutic strategy that clears aggressive brain tumors in mice. The approach uses spherical nucleic acids—precisely engineered nanoparticles (red) that move along cranial nerve routes (green) from the nasal passages into the brain, where they stimulate anti-tumor immunity and drive tumor eradication. Courtesy of Alexander Stegh, PhD.