Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Dec 07, 2024 4 days, 13 hours, 52 minutes ago
Medical News: A New Approach to Tackling Glioblastoma
Glioblastoma (GB) is one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer, notorious for its high fatality rates and resistance to conventional treatments. A groundbreaking study led by researchers from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, the Paulo Niemeyer Brain Institute, and Fiocruz in Brazil, suggests that combining two existing drugs, Osimertinib and Gedatolisib, could provide a potent new treatment for this deadly disease. This
Medical News report explores how these drugs work together and what the findings mean for patients.
Repurposed Cancer Drugs Offer Hope for Glioblastoma Treatment
The Challenge of Treating Glioblastoma
Glioblastoma is a fast-growing brain tumor arising from glial cells. With current treatment methods - including surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy - most patients survive only 9–15 months post-diagnosis. Resistance to chemotherapy, particularly to the widely used drug temozolomide (TMZ), poses a significant hurdle. Around 80% of glioblastoma cases involve changes in the PI3K signaling pathway, a key target for treatment. This highlights the urgent need for innovative therapies.
How the Combination Works
The study focused on repurposing Osimertinib, an EGFR inhibitor, and Gedatolisib, a dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitor. These drugs were tested together in vitro on five human glioblastoma cell lines. Osimertinib effectively blocks EGFR, a receptor involved in tumor growth, while Gedatolisib targets both the PI3K and mTOR pathways, which regulate cell proliferation and survival. When combined, the two drugs exhibited a synergistic effect, meaning their combined impact was significantly greater than the sum of their individual effects.
Study Highlights
Researchers conducted several experiments to understand the drugs’ effects:
-Enhanced Cytotoxicity: The combination was significantly more toxic to glioblastoma cells than either drug alone, reducing tumor cell viability by over 90% in some cases.
-Selective Action: The drug duo specifically targeted cancer cells while sparing healthy cells, indicating a favorable safety profile.
-Cell Cycle Arrest: The combination halted the cell cycle in the G0/G1 phase, preventing cancer cells from proliferating.
-Reduced Migration: By limiting the movement of glioblastoma cells, the treatment could potentially reduce the risk of metastasis.
-Induction of Apoptosis: The therapy triggered programmed cell death in cancer cells, a crucial step in preventing tumor growth.
Implications for Treatment
The study suggests that simultaneous inhibition of EGFR, PI3K, and mTOR pathways could provide a more effective and safer alternative to existing treatments. By targeting multiple pathways at once, the combinatio
n therapy addresses the complex biology of glioblastoma and its ability to resist single-drug therapies.
Conclusion
These findings mark a promising step forward in the fight against glioblastoma. The combination of Osimertinib and Gedatolisib demonstrated remarkable potency and selectivity in laboratory tests. While these results are preliminary and need to be validated through animal studies and clinical trials, they offer new hope for improving survival rates and quality of life for glioblastoma patients.
The study findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal: Pharmaceuticals.
https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8247/17/12/1623
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