Some drugs used for high blood pressure and heart conditions are effective in treating glioblastoma, a type of brain canceras discovered by the Spanish research group.
The professor at the University of Lleida (northeast Spain) and researcher Judit Herreros explained that “the drugs mibefradil and NNC-55-0396 are known to be potent T-type calcium channel blockers,” noting that they and other groups had shown that these compounds “cause the death of cancer cells such as those of glioblastoma, a brain tumor for which There are few treatment options.”
These data prompted mibefradil to be tested in clinical trials in patients with this type of cancer, which confirmed the drug’s safety either alone or in combination with standard treatment.
Likewise, added the researcher, previous studies assumed that these compounds act by blocking T channels, for this reason, the investigation now delves into the mechanisms of action of the drug NNC-55-0396, finding that “paradoxically, the antitumor effect of the drug occurs via T channel-independent signaling pathways”.
“These results define the mechanism of cytotoxicity of these compounds, identifying a death pathway with therapeutic implications, and confirm the usefulness of the drugs as antitumor agents in glioblastoma and other cancers”, confirmed the researchers.
Glioblastoma is the brain cancer more frequent and aggressive, due to its ability to circumvent the immune system and grow.
The article was published in the journal “Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy”.
