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Lomitapide enhances cytotoxic effects of temozolomide in chemotherapy-resistant glioblastoma
Alyona Ivanova, Taylor M. Wilson, Kimia Ghannad-Zadeh, Esmond Tse, Robert Flick, Megan Wu, Sunit Das
Alyona Ivanova, Taylor M. Wilson, Kimia Ghannad-Zadeh, Esmond Tse, Robert Flick, Megan Wu, Sunit Das
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Research Article Cell biology Oncology

Lomitapide enhances cytotoxic effects of temozolomide in chemotherapy-resistant glioblastoma

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Abstract

More than a third of patients with glioblastoma experience tumor progression during adjuvant therapy. In this study, we performed a high-throughput drug repurposing screen of FDA-approved agents capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier in order to find agents to counteract acquired or inherent glioma cell resistance to temozolomide-associated cytotoxicity. We identified the cholesterol processing inhibitor, lomitapide, as a potential chemosensitizer in glioblastoma. In vitro treatment of temozolomide-resistant glioblastoma cells with lomitapide resulted in decreased intracellular ubiquinone levels and sensitized cells to temozolomide-induced ferroptosis. Concomitant treatment with lomitapide and temozolomide (TMZ) prolonged survival and delayed tumor recurrence in a mouse glioblastoma model, compared with treatment xwith TMZ alone. Our data identified lomitapide as a potential adjunct for treatment of temozolomide-resistant glioblastoma.

Authors

Alyona Ivanova, Taylor M. Wilson, Kimia Ghannad-Zadeh, Esmond Tse, Robert Flick, Megan Wu, Sunit Das

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Figure 1

High-throughput screening reveals FDA-approved agents capable of inducing toxicity in glioblastoma cell lines.

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High-throughput screening reveals FDA-approved agents capable of inducin...
(A) Heat map of CTL- and TR-U251 cell viability following screening with SelleckChem’s FDA-approved chemical library at 0.5 and 4.0 μM concentrations. Results in the low-density (yellow) end were evaluated as potential drug hits and subjected to further analysis. Correlation plot of CTL- and TR-U251 results at 0.5 μM (B) and 4.0 μM (C) drug concentrations. Red circles represent 1% hits on the CTL-U251, orange crosses are indicative of 1% hits on TR-U251 cells, and blue triangles denote agents capable of crossing the BBB. (D) Viability assay shows CTL-U251, TR-U251, HEK-293, NHA cell response after treatment with serially increasing concentrations of lomitapide. The data is normalized to untreated control. Dose-response curve for CTL-U251 (E) and TR-U251 (F) cells treated with lomitapide. Dose-response curves were used to determine IC50 values for in vitro analysis. Dose-response matrix map for synergistic drug combination (lomitapide and TMZ) generated using SynergyFinder for (G) CTL-U251 and (H) TR-U251.

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