What you will learn:
1. What new hopes do the research of scientists from NTU and NNI bring for patients with glioblastoma?
2. Which enzymes are involved in the resistance to treatment of glioblastoma?
3. What drugs have been used in studies to combat resistance to temozolomide?
4. Who is the main author of the scientific research from the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine?
5. Which institutions collaborate to develop a more effective treatment for patients with glioblastoma?
Resistance to Chemotherapy
Currently, glioblastoma is treated with a chemotherapy drug called temozolomide (TMZ). TMZ damages the DNA of cancer cells, preventing them from dividing. Unfortunately, glioblastoma almost always recurs as the cancer eventually becomes resistant to TMZ.
Mechanism of Treatment Resistance
To understand the mechanism of treatment resistance and find potential drug targets for resistant glioblastomas, researchers compared the activity of protein kinases - enzymes involved in cellular signaling pathways associated with cancer growth and spread - in mesenchymal (ME) and proneural (PN) glioblastoma cells derived from patients.
Double Strike Against Brain Tumors
The study results showed that blocking the p38MAPK and MEK/ERK signaling pathways simultaneously restores TMZ efficacy against mesenchymal glioblastoma (ME). The p38MAPK and MEK/ERK inhibitors, ralimetinib and binimetinib, respectively, restored TMZ efficacy against ME. Inhibiting p38MAPK also reduced the expression of various drug transporter proteins and improved TMZ retention in cells.
These studies show that therapies targeted simultaneously against different signaling pathways can be a promising approach in treating resistant glioblastomas. These findings open up new possibilities for glioblastoma treatment, and researchers plan to continue their research to bring these therapies to the clinic.
