ArticleCell death & disease2015
Identification of thioridazine, an antipsychotic drug, as an antiglioblastoma and anticancer stem cell agent using public gene expression data.
Article in Cell death & disease, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 86 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
86 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 147 citations in OpenAlex.
- Repurposing neurological drugs for brain cancer therapeutics: A systematic approach to identify charged molecules for affinity-based local drug delivery systems.International journal of pharmaceutics · 2025Pooled it
- Integrative transcriptome-wide analysis of atopic dermatitis for drug repositioning.Communications biology · 2022Pooled it
- Repurposing Antipsychotic Agents in Oncology: Mechanistic Rationale, Emerging Evidence, and Therapeutic Potential.Cancers · 2026Review
- Repurposing Antipsychotics in Cancer Therapy: Modulation of Autophagy Mechanisms.Clinical drug investigation · 2026Review
- Synthesis and Cytotoxic Activity Study of Conjugates of N-Acyl Derivatives of 3,5-Bis(benzylidene)-4-piperidones and Phenothiazine.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Phenothiazine Derivatives and Their Impact on the Apoptosis Processes: A Review.Journal of applied toxicology : JAT · 2026Review
- Transcriptomic-Driven Drug Repurposing Reveals SP600125 as a Promising Drug Candidate for the Treatment of Glial-Mesenchymal Transition in Glioblastoma.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Drug repositioning: examining antipsychotic drugs and their anticancer effects.Daru : journal of Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences · 2025Review
- A New Adjuvant Treatment for Glioblastoma Using Aprepitant, Vortioxetine, Roflumilast and Olanzapine: The AVRO Regimen.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Glioblastoma multiforme: insights into pathogenesis, key signaling pathways, and therapeutic strategies.Molecular cancer · 2025Review
- Pan-cancer drivers of metastasis.Molecular cancer · 2025Article
- Editorial: Drug repurposing for cancer treatment: current and future directions.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Article
- Harnessing Drug Repurposing to Combat Breast Cancer by Targeting Altered Metabolism and Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition Pathways.ACS pharmacology & translational science · 2024Review
- Analysis of transcription profiles for the identification of master regulators as the key players in glioblastoma.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2024Article
- DRD4 promotes chemo-resistance and cancer stem cell-like phenotypes by mediating the activation of the Akt/β-catenin signaling axis in liver cancer.British journal of cancer · 2024Article
- Antipsychotics possess anti-glioblastoma activity by disrupting lysosomal function and inhibiting oncogenic signaling by stabilizing PTEN.Cell death & disease · 2024Article
- DRD1 suppresses cell proliferation and reduces EGFR activation and PD-L1 expression in NSCLC.Molecular oncology · 2024Article
- Signature reversion of three disease-associated gene signatures prioritizes cancer drug repurposing candidates.FEBS open bio · 2024Article
- Imipridones and Dopamine Receptor Antagonism in the Therapeutic Management of Gliomas.Advances in oncology · 2024Article
- Drug repurposing: A novel strategy to target cancer stem cells and therapeutic resistance.Genes & diseases · 2024Review
26 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 7 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Glioblastoma (GBM) is a common and malignant tumor with a poor prognosis. Glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) have been reported to be involved in tumorigenesis, tumor maintenance and therapeutic resistance. Thus, to discover novel candidate therapeutic drugs for anti-GBM and anti-GSCs is an urgent need. We hypothesized that if treatment with a drug could reverse, at least in part, the gene expression signature of GBM and GSCs, this drug may have the potential to inhibit pathways essential in the formation of GBM and thereby treat GBM. Here, we collected 356 GBM gene signatures from public databases and queried the Connectivity Map. We systematically evaluated the in vitro antitumor effects of 79 drugs in GBM cell lines. Of the drugs screened, thioridazine was selected for further characterization because it has potent anti-GBM and anti-GSCs properties. When investigating the mechanisms underlying the cytocidal effects of thioridazine, we found that thioridazine induces autophagy in GBM cell lines, and upregulates AMPK activity. Moreover, LC3-II was upregulated in U87MG sphere cells treated with thioridazine. In addition, thioridazine suppressed GBM tumorigenesis and induced autophagy in vivo. We not only repurposed the antipsychotic drug thioridazine as a potent anti-GBM and anti-GSCs agent, but also provided a new strategy to search for drugs with anticancer and anticancer stem cell properties.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.