GBM (glioblastoma multiforme) is the most common and aggressive brain tumor with no curative options available. Therefore, it is imperative to develop novel potent therapeutic drugs for GBM treatment. Here, we show that regorafenib, an oral multi-kinase inhibitor, exhibits superior therapeutic efficacy over temozolomide, the first-line chemotherapeutic agent for GBM treatment both in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, regorafenib directly stabilizes PSAT1 (phosphoserine aminotransferase 1), a critical enzyme for serine synthesis, to trigger PRKAA-dependent autophagy initiation and inhibit RAB11A-mediated autophagosomelysosome fusion, resulting in lethal autophagy arrest in GBM cells. Maintenance of PSAT1 at a high level is essential for regorafenib-induced GBM suppression. Together, our data provide novel mechanistic insights of regorafenib-induced autophagy arrest and suggest a new paradigm for effective treatment of GBM.

No abstract

Glioblastoma (GBM) remains one of the most malignant primary tumors in adults, with a 5-year survival rate less than 10% because of lacking effective treatment. Here, we aimed to explore whether B7-H3 could serve as a novel therapeutic target for GBM in chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy. In this study, a CAR targeting B7-H3 was constructed and transduced into T cells by lentivirus. Antitumor effects of B7-H3-specific CAR-T cells were assessed with primary and GBM cell lines both in vitro and in vivo . Our results indicated that B7-H3 was positively stained in most of the clinical glioma samples, and its expression levels were correlated to the malignancy grade and poor survival in both low-grade glioma (LGG) and GBM patients. Specific antitumor functions of CAR-T cells were confirmed by cytotoxic and ELISA assay both in primary glioblastoma cells and GBM cell lines. In the orthotropic GBM models, the median survival of the CAR-T-cell-treated group was significantly longer than that of the control group. In conclusion, B7-H3 is frequently overexpressed in GBM patients and may serve as a therapeutic target in CAR-T therapy.

The purpose of this work was to develop implantable curcumin-loaded poly(ε-caprolactone)-poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL-PEG-PCL, PCEC) nanofibers, which might have potential application in cancer therapy. Curcumin was incorporated into biodegradable PCEC nanofibers by electrospinning method. The surface morphology of the composite nanofibers was characterized on Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The average diameter of the nanofibers was 2.3-4.5μm. In vitro release behavior of curcumin from the fiber mats was also studied in detail. The in vitro cytotoxicity assay showed that the PCEC fibers themselves did not affect the growth of rat Glioma 9L cells. Antitumor activity of the curcumin-loaded fibers against the cells was kept over the whole experiment process, while the antitumor activity of pure curcumin disappeared within 48 h. These results strongly suggested that the curcumin/PCEC composite nanofibers might have potential application for postoperative chemotherapy of brain cancers.

Purpose: Given that heterogeneous expression and variants of antigens on solid tumors are responsible for relapse after chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy, we hypothesized that combinatorial targeting two tumor-associated antigens would lessen this problem and enhance the antitumor activity of T cells. Methods: The co-expression level of CD70 and B7-H3 was analyzed in multiple tumor tissue samples. Further, two putative antigens were identified in The Cancer Genome Atlas and Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis database. Two CD70 targeted CARs with different antigen binding domain, truncated CD27 and CD70 specific single-chain antibody fragment (scFv), were designed to screen a more suitable target-antigen binding moiety. Accordingly, we designed a bivalent tandem CAR (TanCAR) and further assessed the anti-tumor efficacy of TanCAR-T cells in vitro and in vivo . Results: Our results indicated that co-expression of CD70 and B7-H3 was observed on multiple tumor types including kidney, breast, esophageal, liver, colon cancer, glioma as well as melanoma. The CD70 targeted CAR-T cells with binding moiety of CD70 specific scFv exhibit a higher affinity and antitumor effect against CD70 + tumor cells. TanCAR-T cells induced enhanced ability of cytolysis and cytokine release over unispecific CAR-T cells when encountering tumor cells expressing two target-antigens. Further, low doses of TanCAR-T cells could also effectively control the lung cancer and melanoma xenografts and improved overall survival of the treated animals. Conclusion: TanCAR-T cells targeting CD70 and B7-H3 exhibit enhanced antitumor functionality and improve the problem of antigenic heterogeneity and variant in the treatment against solid tumor and melanoma.