A new approach to the treatment of chemotherapy-resistant glioblastoma has begun to be developed in the Russian Federation

Scientists from the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences have discovered that a short RNA sequence regulating the activity of a certain gene plays a key role in the formation of resistance of the most aggressive brain tumor - glioblastoma - to the chemotherapeutic drug temozolomide. Experiments have shown that if you "block" the production of this molecule, tumor cells become sensitive to treatment. This opens the way to the development of new methods of oncotherapy.

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Glioblastoma is the most common and dangerous brain tumor, characterized by rapid growth and resistance to therapy. Even with a combination of surgical removal, radiation therapy and chemotherapy, the survival rate of patients during the next five years after treatment does not exceed 3 - 4%. One of the main reasons for the low efficacy of treatment is that cancer cells resist the action of the drugs. For example, the STAT3 protein is known to be involved in the formation of drug resistance in tumors. Theoretically, if you block its production, there is a chance to overcome the resistance of cancer cells, but this could disrupt the immune system, in which the protein is also involved.

"Our study offers a fundamentally new strategy to combat glioblastoma resistance to therapy. Unlike direct suppression of STAT3, the effect on enhancer RNA is highly specific, so that drugs targeting this molecule will potentially have fewer side effects," Ekaterina Stasevich, a researcher at the Institute of Molecular Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a graduate student at MIPT, told Izvestia, head of the project supported by an RNF grant.

Biologists conducted experiments on laboratory-grown glioblastoma cell lines, as well as cells obtained from patients with this type of tumor.

Read more in the exclusive material "Izvestia":

Cancer will be defeated: new method will defeat resistance of aggressive brain tumor