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1. Drug target ranking for glioblastoma multiforme

   https://doi.org/10.1186/s42490-021-00052-w  

   Saraf, Radhika; Agah, Shaghayegh; Datta, Aniruddha; Jiang, Xiaoqian (December 2021, BMC Biomedical Engineering)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract Background Glioblastoma Multiforme, an aggressive primary brain tumor, has a poor prognosis and no effective standard of care treatments. Most patients undergoing radiotherapy, along with Temozolomide chemotherapy, develop resistance to the drug, and recurrence of the tumor is a common issue after the treatment. We propose to model the pathways active in Glioblastoma using Boolean network techniques. The network captures the genetic interactions and possible mutations that are involved in the development of the brain tumor. The model is used to predict the theoretical efficacies of drugs for the treatment of cancer. Results We use the Boolean network to rank the critical intervention points in the pathway to predict an effective therapeutic strategy for Glioblastoma. Drug repurposing helps to identify non-cancer drugs that could be effective in cancer treatment. We predict the effectiveness of drug combinations of anti-cancer and non-cancer drugs for Glioblastoma. Conclusions Given the genetic profile of a GBM tumor, the Boolean model can predict the most effective targets for treatment. We also identified two-drug combinations that could be more effective in killing GBM cells than conventional chemotherapeutic agents. The non-cancer drug Aspirin could potentially increase the cytotoxicity of TMZ in GBM patients. 

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2. The application of electrosprayed minocycline‐loaded PLGA microparticles for the treatment of glioblastoma

   https://doi.org/10.1002/bit.28527  

   Arriaga, Marco A; Amieva, Juan A; Quintanilla, Jaqueline; Jimenez, Angela; Ledezma, Julio; Lopez, Silverio; Martirosyan, Karen S; Chew, Sue Anne (November 2023, Biotechnology and Bioengineering)

   Abstract The survival of patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common and invasive form of malignant brain tumors, remains poor despite advances in current treatment methods including surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. Minocycline is a semi‐synthetic tetracycline derivative that has been widely used as an antibiotic and more recently, it has been utilized as an antiangiogenic factor to inhibit tumorigenesis. The objective of this study was to investigate the utilization of electrospraying process to fabricate minocycline‐loaded poly(lactic‐co‐glycolic acid) (PLGA) microparticles with high drug loading and loading efficiency and to evaluate their ability to induce cell toxicity in human glioblastoma (i.e., U87‐MG) cells. The results from this study demonstrated that solvent mixture of dicholoromethane (DCM) and methanol is the optimal solvent combination for minocycline and larger amount of methanol (i.e., 70:30) resulted in a higher drug loading. All three solvent ratios of DCM:methanol tested produced microparticles that were both spherical and smooth, all in the micron size range. The electrosprayed microparticles were able to elicit a cytotoxic response in U87‐MG glioblastoma cells at a lower concentration of drug compared to the free drug. This work provides proof of concept to the hypothesis that electrosprayed minocycline‐loaded PLGA microparticles can be a promising agent for the treatment of GBM and could have potential application for cancer therapies. 

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3. In Vitro and In Vivo Enhancement of Temozolomide Effect in Human Glioblastoma by Non-Invasive Application of Cold Atmospheric Plasma

   https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13174485  

   Soni, Vikas; Adhikari, Manish; Simonyan, Hayk; Lin, Li; Sherman, Jonathan H.; Young, Colin N.; Keidar, Michael (September 2021, Cancers)

   null (Ed.)

   Glioblastoma (GBM) is one of the most aggressive forms of adult brain cancers and is highly resistant to treatment, with a median survival of 12–18 months after diagnosis. The poor survival is due to its infiltrative pattern of invasion into the normal brain parenchyma, the diffuse nature of its growth, and its ability to quickly grow, spread, and relapse. Temozolomide is a well-known FDA-approved alkylating chemotherapy agent used for the treatment of high-grade malignant gliomas, and it has been shown to improve overall survival. However, in most cases, the tumor relapses. In recent years, CAP has been used as an emerging technology for cancer therapy. The purpose of this study was to implement a combination therapy of CAP and TMZ to enhance the effect of TMZ and apparently sensitize GBMs. In vitro evaluations in TMZ-sensitive and resistant GBM cell lines established a CAP chemotherapy enhancement and potential sensitization effect across various ranges of CAP jet application. This was further supported with in vivo findings demonstrating that a single CAP jet applied non-invasively through the skull potentially sensitizes GBM to subsequent treatment with TMZ. Gene functional enrichment analysis further demonstrated that co-treatment with CAP and TMZ resulted in a downregulation of cell cycle pathway genes. These observations indicate that CAP can be potentially useful in sensitizing GBM to chemotherapy and for the treatment of glioblastoma as a non-invasive translational therapy. 

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4. Advancing Targeted Drug Delivery in Glioblastoma Multiforme Through Biomimetic Nanomedicine Using 3D Tumor‐On‐a‐Chip Model

   https://doi.org/10.1002/adhm.202502454  

   Manoharan, Twinkle_Jina Minette; Wang, Ting‐Yun; Mantri, Shivani; Alarnous, Hanan; Mehta, Shwetal; Wang, Kuei‐Chun; Nikkhah, Mehdi (September 2025, Advanced Healthcare Materials)

   Abstract The prognosis of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) remains dismal, despite standard treatment regimens. A key challenge in treating GBM is the persistence of glioma stem cells (GSCs) within the perivascular niche (PVN) – a protective tumor microenvironment (TME) that is often associated with inadequate drug penetration. Current preclinical models do not capture complexity of the human TME, particularly the vasculature and niche‐specific interactions that drive GBM progression. To overcome these limitations, an innovative 3Dex‐vivotumor‐on‐a‐chip (TOC) platform is engineered to accurately replicate the structural and functional characteristics of the PVN. Using this platform, this study demonstrates that monocyte membrane‐coated nanoparticles (MoNP) effectively target the abnormal tumor microvasculature, offering a promising approach to enhance drug delivery to these hard‐to‐reach GSCs. The results show that the therapeutic agent verteporfin, when delivered via MoNP, significantly inhibited GSC growth and invasiveness, while the free‐form drug showed minimal efficacy. Comprehensive transcriptomic profiling and cytokine analysis validated the TOC model's ability to reflect authentic GSC responses and confirmed that MoNP‐mediated verteporfin delivery effectively modulates key tumor‐related signaling pathways. This integrated TOC‐MoNP platform represents a clinically relevant tool that bridges the gap between traditional preclinical models and human disease, providing new opportunities for developing more effective GBM therapies. 

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5. Macrophage-targeted anti-CCL2 immunotherapy enhances tumor sensitivity to 5-fluorouracil in a Balb/c-CT26 murine colon carcinoma model measured using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy

   https://doi.org/10.1186/s12865-022-00493-5  

   Bess, Shelby N.; Greening, Gage J.; Rajaram, Narasimhan; Muldoon, Timothy J. (December 2022, BMC Immunology)

   Abstract Background Immunotherapy in colorectal cancer (CRC) regulates specific immune checkpoints and, when used in combination with chemotherapy, can improve patient prognosis. One specific immune checkpoint is the recruitment of circulating monocytes that differentiate into tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and promote tumor angiogenesis. Changes in vascularization can be non-invasively assessed via diffuse reflectance spectroscopy using hemoglobin concentrations and oxygenation in a localized tumor volume. In this study, we examine whether blockade of monocyte recruitment via CCL2 (macrophage chemoattractant protein-1) leads to enhanced sensitivity of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in a CT26-Balb/c mouse model of CRC. It was hypothesized that the blockade of TAMs will alter tumor perfusion, increasing chemotherapy response. A subcutaneous tumor model using Balb/c mice injected with CT26 colon carcinoma cells received either a saline or isotype control, anti-CCL2, 5-FU, or a combination of anti-CCL2 and 5-FU. Results Findings show that 12 days post-treatment, monocyte recruitment was significantly reduced by approximately 61% in the combination group. This shows that the addition of anti-CCL2 to 5-FU slowed the fold-change (change from the original measurement to the final measurement) in tumor volume from Day 0 to Day 12 (~ 5 fold). Modest improvements in oxygen saturation (~ 30%) were observed in the combination group. Conclusion The findings in this work suggest that the blockade of CCL2 is sufficient in the reduction of TAMs that are recruited into the tumor microenvironment and has the ability to modestly alter tumor perfusion during early-tumor response to treatment even though the overall benefit is relatively modest. 

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