Title:Glioblastoma as a Novel Drug Repositioning Target: Updated State
Volume: 23
Issue: 11
Author(s): Hamed Hosseinalizadeh, Ammar Ebrahimi, Ahmad Tavakoli and Seyed Hamidreza Monavari*
Affiliation:
- Department of Virology, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Keywords:
Glioblastoma, drug repositioning, blood-brain barrier, non-cancer drugs, GBM, brain tumor.
Abstract: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is an aggressive form of adult brain tumor that can arise from a low-grade
astrocytoma. In recent decades, several new conventional therapies have been developed that have significantly improved
the prognosis of patients with GBM. Nevertheless, most patients have a limited long-term response to these
treatments and survive < 1 year. Therefore, innovative anti-cancer drugs that can be rapidly approved for patient use
are urgently needed. One way to achieve accelerated approval is drug repositioning, extending the use of existing drugs
for new therapeutic purposes, as it takes less time to validate their biological activity as well as their safety in preclinical
models. In this review, a comprehensive analysis of the literature search was performed to list drugs with antiviral,
antiparasitic, and antidepressant properties that may be effective in GBM and their putative anti-tumor mechanisms in
GBM cells.