Redefining glioblastoma treatment: the role of copper in targeted anticancer therapies
|Many chemotherapy options currently available come with serious side effects, such as damage to healthy cells, and the risk of cancer cells becoming resistant. A more efficient and targeted option, especially for solid tumors such as glioblastoma (GBM), can come from copper complexes: they cause DNA damage, generate reactive oxygen species, inhibit proteasomes, and they enhance the effectiveness of temozolomide (TMZ), the standard treatment for these tumors.
Prof. Chiara Battocchio, Dr Simone Amatori (Roma Tre University) and colleagues have synthesized and characterised novel copper complexes, based on the coupling between bifunctional species L2H and the drug amantadine (which has recently shown antiproliferative effects in different human tumor cell lines). Researchers could describe in detail the structure of these complexes exploiting a combination of Near Edge X-ray Absorption Fine structure (NEXAFS), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS), available respectively at the Italian CERIC Partner Facility at Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste and at the CNR’s LISA Beamline (CERIC Associated Facility at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility). Furthermore, they tested on three different GBM cell lines the antitumoral efficiency of the new copper complexes, and their ability to enhance the chemosensitivity to TMZ.
Scientists could then prove that copper complexes affect cell growth, proliferation, and death due to increased production of reactive oxygen species and DNA damage, Interestingly, nontoxic doses of these compounds enhanced the chemosensitivity to TMZ.
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