ArticleFrontiers in neuroscience2015
Metformin and Ara-a Effectively Suppress Brain Cancer by Targeting Cancer Stem/Progenitor Cells.
Article in Frontiers in neuroscience, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 50 citations in OpenAlex.
- Modeling glioblastoma relapse in vitro: a critical journey from 2D models to organ-on-chip alternatives.NPJ precision oncology · 2026Review
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- Metformin and its Nanoformulations in Cancer Prevention and Therapy.Current pharmaceutical design · 2025Review
- Therapeutic Effects of Metformin on Central Nervous System Diseases: A Focus on Protection of Neurovascular Unit.Pharmaceutical research · 2024Review
- DFMO inhibition of neuroblastoma tumorigenesis.Cancer medicine · 2024Article
- Metformin and its potential influence on cell fate decision between apoptosis and senescence in cancer, with a special emphasis on glioblastoma.Frontiers in oncology · 2024Review
- Usnic Acid-Loaded Polymeric Micelles: An Optimal Migrastatic-Acting Formulation in Human SH-SY5Y Neuroblastoma Cells.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Novel therapeutic diiminoquinone exhibits anticancer effects on human colorectal cancer cells in two-dimensional and three-dimensionalWorld journal of gastroenterology · 2022Article
- Overcoming Drug Resistance in Advanced Prostate Cancer by Drug Repurposing.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Repurposing of Anticancer Stem Cell Drugs in Brain Tumors.The journal of histochemistry and cytochemistry : official journal of the Histochemistry Society · 2021Review
- Article
- Central nervous system tumors and three-dimensional cell biology: Current and future perspectives in modeling.World journal of stem cells · 2021Review
- Mechanisms involved in selecting and maintaining neuroblastoma cancer stem cell populations, and perspectives for therapeutic targeting.World journal of stem cells · 2021Review
- Norepinephrine inhibits migration and invasion of human glioblastoma cell cultures possibly via MMP-11 inhibition.Brain research · 2021Article
- The potential use of tideglusib as an adjuvant radio-therapeutic treatment for glioblastoma multiforme cancer stem-like cells.Pharmacological reports : PR · 2021Article
- Tideglusib attenuates growth of neuroblastoma cancer stem/progenitor cells in vitro and in vivo by specifically targeting GSK-3β.Pharmacological reports : PR · 2021Article
- AQP1 Is Up-Regulated by Hypoxia and Leads to Increased Cell Water Permeability, Motility, and Migration in Neuroblastoma.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2021Article
- Drug Repurposing in Medulloblastoma: Challenges and Recommendations.Current treatment options in oncology · 2020Review
- Review
- Novel 2-(5-Imino-5ACS omega · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundGliomas and neuroblastomas pose a great health burden worldwide with a poor and moderate prognosis, respectively. Many studies have tried to find effective treatments for these primary malignant brain tumors. Of interest, the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) pathway was found to be associated with tumorigenesis and tumor survival, leading to many studies on AMPK drugs, especially Metformin, and their potential role as anti-cancer treatments. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a small population of slowly-dividing, treatment-resistant, undifferentiated cancer cells that are being discovered in a multitude of cancers. They are thought to be responsible for replenishing the tumor with highly proliferative cells and increasing the risk of recurrence.
methodsMetformin and 9-β-d-Arabinofuranosyl Adenine (Ara-a) were used to study the role of the AMPK pathway in vitro on U251 (glioblastoma) and SH-SY5Y (neuroblastoma) cell lines.
resultsWe found that both drugs are able to decrease the survival of U251 and SH-SY5Y cell lines in a 2D as well as a 3D culture model. Metformin and Ara-a significantly decreased the invasive ability of these cancer cell lines. Treatment with these drugs decreased the sphere-forming units (SFU) of U251 cells, with Ara-a being more efficient, signifying the extinction of the CSC population. However, if treatment is withdrawn before all SFUs are extinguished, the CSCs regain some of their sphere-forming capabilities in the case of Metformin but not Ara-a treatment.
conclusionMetformin and Ara-a have proved to be effective in the treatment of glioblastomas and neuroblastomas, in vitro, by targeting their cancer stem/progenitor cell population, which prevents recurrence.
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