Researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) are reporting the use of MRI to guide the delivery of gene therapy in the brain.
A team from UCSD and Moores Cancer Center used a guidance system called ClearPoint (MRI Interventions) to monitor the delivery and injection of gene therapy in real-time. The researchers injected Toca 511 (vocimagene amiretrorepvec), a novel investigational gene therapy agent, directly into a brain malignancy to make the tumor more susceptible to cancer-killing drugs.
UCSD researchers used the ClearPoint guidance system with MRI scans to direct gene therapy for brain tumors. Image courtesy of UCSD.The MRI-guided process provides visual confirmation that the desired amount of drug is delivered into the tumor and gives physicians the ability to make adjustments to optimize the location of drug delivery. The procedure also ensures that Toca 511 is limited to the brain tumor, according to Dr. Clark Chen, PhD, chief of stereotactic and radiosurgery and vice chairman of neurosurgery at UCSD Health System. Tumors light up on MRI during the drug infusion, Chen said.
Toca 511 is a retrovirus engineered to selectively replicate in cancer cells. Toca 511 produces an enzyme that converts the antifungal drug flucytosine (5-FC) into the anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil. After physicians inject Toca 511, patients are treated with an investigational extended-release oral formulation of 5-FC called Toca FC. Cancer cells die when 5-FC comes into contact with cells infected with Toca 511, according to the university.
Patients treated with the ClearPoint system were discharged from the hospital one day after surgery and resumed their normal daily activity.
