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A decades-old anti-anxiety medication has shown promise in enhancing the effectiveness of chemo-radiotherapy for glioblastoma (GBM), the most prevalent and deadly form of brain cancer.
Brain cancers claim the lives of more children and adults under 40 than any other type of cancer. They tend to be resistant to treatments that are effective against cancer in other parts of the body.
A study published in the journal Science Advances revealed that cerebrospinal fluid, the clear, colorless liquid that safeguards the brain, diminishes the current treatment’s efficacy in brain cancer. Researchers from Flinders University in Australia also suggested that it might be a contributing factor to the resistance of brain cancers to treatment.
The research team conducted experiments to assess how human cerebrospinal fluid, a precious resource, influenced the growth of tumor cells taken from 25 local patients with glioblastoma.
One notable discovery was that the tumor cells rapidly underwent changes in their characteristics, becoming more resilient to both radiation and temozolomide, a drug commonly used in glioblastoma therapy.
Cedric Bardy, Associate Professor at Flinders, emphasized, “Glioblastoma claims the lives of many otherwise healthy, young individuals within a matter of months. It’s a devastating disease, and the available treatments, despite their serious side effects, are not sufficiently effective.”
He added, “This study sheds light on the limitations of current chemotherapy approaches and offers renewed hope for repurposing a class of drugs that could complement the standard treatment protocol. We are currently making efforts to test this on patients in a clinical trial.”
Upon investigating the molecular basis of these alterations, the team observed that glioblastoma cells exposed to cerebrospinal fluid exhibited increased resistance to ferroptosis, a type of cell death induced by therapy.
Significantly, the researchers demonstrated that trifluoperazine, an anti-anxiety medication in use since the 1950s, could sensitize glioblastoma cells once again to both therapies.
In contrast, trifluoperazine was found to have no harmful effects on healthy brain cells. The researchers concluded that combining trifluoperazine with standard care could potentially enhance the survival prospects of GBM patients.
