23 were injected into intracranial gliomas and other areas of the brain. Treated animals survived significantly longer than those in control groups. In fact, of those receiving BM-NSC-IL-23, 60 percent survived beyond day 120 tumor-free. Only 20 percent of those treated with IL-23 that was not attached to neural stem cells survived, and no animals survived if they received neural stem cells without IL-23.
Even after additional glioma cells were injected, BM-NSC-IL-23-treated animals remained tumor free, evidence of the long-term immunity provided by IL-23's generation of memory T-cells.