ReviewFrontiers in pharmacology2019
Surprising Anticancer Activities of Psychiatric Medications: Old Drugs Offer New Hope for Patients With Brain Cancer.
Review in Frontiers in pharmacology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Design, Synthesis, and Computational Evaluation of 3,4-Dihydroquinolin-2(Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Repositioning of aripiprazole, an anti‑psychotic drug, to sensitize the chemotherapy of pancreatic cancer.International journal of molecular medicine · 2025Article
- Therapeutic role of aripiprazole in cartilage defects explored through a drug repurposing approach.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Discovery of key molecular signatures for diagnosis and therapies of glioblastoma by combining supervised and unsupervised learning approaches.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Antipsychotics possess anti-glioblastoma activity by disrupting lysosomal function and inhibiting oncogenic signaling by stabilizing PTEN.Cell death & disease · 2024Article
- Iloperidone and Temozolomide Synergistically Inhibit Growth, Migration and Enhance Apoptosis in Glioblastoma Cells.Biomedicines · 2024Article
- Emerging role of MYB transcription factors in cancer drug resistance.Cancer drug resistance (Alhambra, Calif.) · 2024Review
- Combined Administration of Escitalopram Oxalate and Nivolumab Exhibits Synergistic Growth-Inhibitory Effects on Liver Cancer Cells through Inducing Apoptosis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- The effect of anticonvulsants on survival among patients with GBM brain tumors undergoing radiation: A SEER-Medicare analysis.Journal of clinical neuroscience : official journal of the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia · 2022Article
- Block of Voltage-Gated Sodium Channels by Aripiprazole in a State-Dependent Manner.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Adenosine, Schizophrenia and Cancer: Does the Purinergic System Offer a Pathway to Treatment?International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Neuroprotective agents effective against radiation damage of central nervous system.Neural regeneration research · 2022Review
- Aripiprazole sensitizes head and neck cancer cells to ionizing radiation by enhancing the production of reactive oxygen species.Pharmacology research & perspectives · 2022Article
- From GWAS to drug screening: repurposing antipsychotics for glioblastoma.Journal of translational medicine · 2022Article
- Dissecting the Mechanism of Action of Spiperone-A Candidate for Drug Repurposing for Colorectal Cancer.Cancers · 2022Article
- Breast cancer in schizophrenia could be interleukin-33-mediated.World journal of psychiatry · 2021Review
- Safety and Efficacy of High-Dose Vitamin B6 as an Adjunctive Treatment for Antipsychotic-Induced Hyperprolactinemia in Male Patients With Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Article
- Block of Voltage-Gated Sodium Channels as a Potential Novel Anti-cancer Mechanism of TIC10.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2021Article
- Haloperidol Induced Cell Cycle Arrest and Apoptosis in Glioblastoma Cells.Biomedicines · 2020Article
- Ex vivo radiosensitivity is increased in non-cancer patients taking valproate.BMC neurology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Despite decades of research and major efforts, malignant brain tumors remain among the deadliest of all cancers. Recently, an increasing number of psychiatric drugs has been proven to possess suppressing activities against brain tumors, and rapid progress has been made in understanding the potential mechanisms of action of these drugs. In particular, the traditional mood stabilizer valproic acid, the widely used antidepressants fluoxetine and escitalopram oxalate, and the atypical psychiatric drug aripiprazole have demonstrated promise for application in brain tumor treatment strategies through multiple lines of laboratory, preclinical, and clinical evidence. The unexpected discovery of the anticancer properties of these drugs has ignited interest in the repurposing of other psychiatric drugs to combat brain cancer. In this review, we synthesize recent progress in understanding the potential molecular mechanisms underlying the brain cancer-killing activities of representative psychiatric drugs. We also identify key limitations in the repurposing of these medications that must be overcome to enhance our ability to successfully prevent and treat brain cancer, especially in the most vulnerable groups of patients, such as children and adolescents, pregnant women, and those with unfavorable genetic variants. Moreover, we propose perspectives that may guide future research and provide long-awaited new hope to patients with brain cancer and their families.
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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.