It is difficult to find effective drugs for brain tumors because many of them cannot pass through the blood-brain barrier to reach the brain. This limits the choice of possible treatments. Therefore, neuro-oncologists For some time now, they have been intensively searching for better drugs that can reach the brain and eliminate the tumor.
However, a group of researchers from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (Switzerland) published a study in the prestigious journal Natural medicine in which they show that an antidepressant called vortioxetine is able to fight effectively in the laboratory glioblastomaa particularly aggressive and incurable brain tumor.
Currently, Oncologists can extend life expectancy glioblastoma patients with operations, radiotherapy, chemotherapy or surgical procedures. However, half of patients die within twelve months of diagnosis.
This new research opens the door to new treatments and, as Michael Weller, professor at the University Hospital Zurich and director of the department of neurology and co-author of the study, points out, “the advantage of vortioxetine is that it is safe and very cost effective. “As the drug has already been approved, it does not require a complex approval process and could soon complement the standard treatment for this deadly brain tumor.”
Crosses the blood-brain barrier
Scientists know that this cheap drug, already approved by organizations such as the American FDA and Swissmedic, is capable of passing through the blood-brain barrier.
Sohyon Lee, a postdoctoral researcher at Snijder and lead author of the study, discovered this using pharmacoscopy, a special detection platform that researchers at ETH Zurich have been developing over the past few years. In this study, Researchers from ETH Zurich worked closely with colleagues from several hospitalsin particular with the group of neurologists Michael Weller and Tobias Weiss from the University Hospital Zurich (USZ).
On the other hand, to determine What substances had an effect on cancer cellsthe researchers They used imaging and computer analysis techniquesPreviously, Snijder and his team only used the pharmacoscopy to analyze blood cancer and deduce treatment options. Glioblastomas are the first solid tumors that have been systematically studied with this method with a view to using existing drugs for new purposes.
For the screening, Lee analyzed fresh cancer tissue from patients who had recently undergone surgery at the University Hospital Zurich. Researchers at ETH Zurich then processed this tissue in the laboratory and examined it on the pharmacoscopy platform. Two days later, the researchers obtained results showing which agents were acting on cancer cells and which ones are not.
Effective antidepressants
The results showed that Some antidepressants tested, but not all turned out unexpectedly effective against tumor cells. These drugs worked particularly well when they rapidly activated a signaling cascade that is important for neural progenitor cells, but that also suppresses cell division. Vortioxetine was found to be the most effective antidepressant.
Researchers at ETH Zurich They also used a computer model to check the effectiveness of more than a million drugs against glioblastomas. They discovered that the joint signaling cascade of neurons and cancer cells plays a decisive role and explains why some neuroactive drugs work and others do not.
In the last stepResearchers at the University Hospital Zurich tested vortioxetine in mice with glioblastoma. The drug also showed good efficacy in these trialsespecially in association with current standard treatment.
The research group from ETH Zurich and USZ is currently preparing two clinical trials. In one, patients with glioblastoma will be treated with vortioxetine in addition to standard treatment (surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy). In the other, patients will receive a personalized selection of drugs, which the researchers will determine for each individual using the pharmacoscopy platform.
