Drug Repurposing, a Fast-Track Approach to Develop Effective Treatments for Glioblastoma

Ioannis Ntafoulis, Stijn L.W. Koolen, Sieger Leenstra, Martine L.M. Lamfers*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articleAcademicpeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)
132 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Glioblastoma (GBM) remains one of the most difficult tumors to treat. The mean overall survival rate of 15 months and the 5-year survival rate of 5% have not significantly changed for almost 2 decades. Despite progress in understanding the pathophysiology of the disease, no new effective treatments to combine with radiation therapy after surgical tumor debulking have become available since the introduction of temozolomide in 1999. One of the main reasons for this is the scarcity of compounds that cross the blood–brain barrier (BBB) and reach the brain tumor tissue in therapeutically effective concentrations. In this review, we focus on the role of the BBB and its importance in developing brain tumor treatments. Moreover, we discuss drug repurposing, a drug discovery approach to identify potential effective candidates with optimal pharmacokinetic profiles for central nervous system (CNS) penetration and that allows rapid implementation in clinical trials. Additionally, we provide an overview of repurposed candidate drug currently being investigated in GBM at the preclinical and clinical levels. Finally, we highlight the importance of phase 0 trials to confirm tumor drug exposure and we discuss emerging drug delivery technologies as an alternative route to maximize therapeutic efficacy of repurposed candidate drug.

Original languageEnglish
Article number3705
JournalCancers
Volume14
Issue number15
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 29 Jul 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (No. 766069 GLIOTRAIN).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors.

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