The Application of Peptides in Glioma: A Novel Tool for Therapy

Background: Glioma is the most aggressive and lethal tumor of the central nervous system. Due to the cellular heterogeneity, the invasiveness, and blood-brain barrier (BBB), current therapeutic approaches, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, are poorly to obtain great antitumor efficacy. However, peptides, a novel type of therapeutic agent, displayed excellent ability in the tumor, which becomes a new molecule for glioma treatment. Methods: We review the current knowledge on peptides for the treatment of glioma through a PubMed-based literature search. Results: In the treatment of glioma, peptides can be used as (i) decoration on the surface of the delivery system, facilitating the distribution and accumulation of the anti-tumor drug in target site; (ii) anti-tumor active molecules, inhibiting the growth of glioma and reducing solid tumor volume; (iii) immune-stimulating factor, and it activating immune cells in the tumor microenvironment or recruiting immune cells to the tumor for breaking out the immunosuppression by glioma cells. Conclusion: The application of peptides has revolutionized the treatment of glioma, which based on targeting, penetrating, anti-tumor activities and immunostimulatory. Moreover, better outcomes have been discovered in combining different kinds of peptides rather than a single one. Until now, more and more preclinical studies have been developed with multifarious peptides, which shows promising results in vitro or vivo with the model of glioma.