Existing Drug Repurposing for Glioblastoma to Discover Candidate Drugs as a New a Approach

Abstract

Aims: Repurposing of drugs has been hypothesized as a means of identifying novel treatment methods for certain diseases. Background: Glioblastoma (GB) is an aggressive type of human cancer; the most effective treatment for glioblastoma is chemotherapy. Whereas, when repurposing drugs, a lot of time and money can be saved. Objective: Repurposing of the existing drug may be used to discover candidate drugs for individualized treatments of GB. Method: We used the bioinformatics method to obtain the candidate drugs. In addition, the drugs were verified by MTT assay, Transwell® assays, TUNEL staining, and in vivo tumor formation experiments, as well as statistical analysis. Result: We obtained 4 candidate drugs suitable for the treatment of glioma: camptothecin, doxorubicin, daunorubicin, and mitoxantrone by expression spectrum data, IPAS algorithm analysis, and drug-pathway connectivity analysis. These validation experiments showed that camptothecin was more effective at treating the GB, such as MTT assay, Transwell® assays, TUNEL staining, and in vivo tumor formation. Conclusion: With regard to personalized treatment, this present study may be used to guide the research of new drugs via verification experiments and tumor formation. The present study also provides a guide to systematic, individualized drug discovery for complex diseases and may contribute to the future application of individualized treatments.

Combination Drug Therapy of Glioblastoma: Lessons from 3D In Vitro Models and the Roadmap for Future Research

“…Such medicines also have already passed through clinical trials (for other medical conditions), which allows cost and time savings. [ 7a,22,53 ] Moreover, several repurposed drugs have demonstrated promising results when applied in the adjuvant treatment of GB. For example, in combination with TMZ, an anti‐diabetic drug Metformin has shown a synergistic cytotoxic effect.…”

“…[55] There is a significant body of literature on the topic of drug repurposing that discusses other classes of repurposed drugs, as well as their particular molecular mechanisms that can be employed for combinatorial GB treatment and drug selection approaches. [7,41,53,55,56]…”