Potential for enhanced oncolytic HSV-1 therapy via SHED as a vehicle against malignant gliomas.

Malignant gliomas are common primary brain tumors. Glioblastoma carries a poor prognosis, with median survival of less than 2 years. Given the urgent need for novel therapies, oncolytic virus (OV) therapy has developed rapidly. However, challenges remain with effective OV delivery to tumor sites and efficient infection of tumor cells. This study investigated the use of stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth (SHED) as a potential vehicle for oncolytic herpes simplex virus-1 therapy (SHED-OV) to enhance treatment efficacy. SHED-OV showed a greater reduction in tumor cell viability in vitro than direct OV infection. Migration assays revealed that SHED-OV actively migrated toward glioma cell-conditioned medium, demonstrating their tumor-homing ability. In vivo experiments demonstrated significantly prolonged survival in both the glioma cell/SHED-OV co-implantation group and the OV-infected glioma cell group compared with controls. In a glioma stem cell model, both SHED-OV and OV alone significantly improved survival compared with controls, with SHED-OV achieving anti-tumor effects comparable to those of direct OV administration and complete tumor regression in a subset of mice. SHED-OV also exhibited tumor-homing ability. These results suggest that SHED could serve as an effective vehicle for OV delivery, potentially improving tumor infection and therapeutic efficacy.