Spherical Nucleic Acid Nanoparticle Conjugates as an RNAi-Based Therapy for Glioblastoma

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a neurologically debilitating disease that culminates in death 14 to 16 months after diagnosis. An incomplete understanding of how cataloged genetic aberrations promote therapy resistance, combined with ineffective drug delivery to the central nervous system, has rendered GBM incurable. Functional genomics efforts have implicated several oncogenes in GBM pathogenesis but have rarely led to the implementation of targeted therapies. This is partly because many "undruggable" oncogenes cannot be targeted by small molecules or antibodies. We preclinically evaluate an RNA interference (RNAi)-based nanomedicine platform, based on spherical nucleic acid (SNA) nanoparticle conjugates,…