Thioridazine inhibits autophagy and sensitizes glioblastoma cells to temozolomide.
Tor-Christian Johannessen, Md Mahdi Hasan-Olive, …, Lars Prestegarden
“Abstract: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) has a poor prognosis with an overall survival of 14-15 months after surgery, radiation and chemotherapy using temozolomide (TMZ). A major problem is that the tumors acquire resistance to therapy. In an effort to improve the therapeutic efficacy of TMZ, we performed a genome-wide RNA interference (RNAi) synthetic lethality screen to establish a functional gene signature for TMZ sensitivity in human GBM cells. We then queried the Connectivity Map database to search for drugs that would induce corresponding changes in gene expression. By this approach we identified several potential pharmacological sensitizers to TMZ, where the most potent drug was the established antipsychotic agent Thioridazine, which significantly improved TMZ sensitivity while not demonstrating any significant toxicity alone”