Open Access

ARTICLE

Corilagin Induces High Levels of Apoptosis in the Temozolomide-Resistant T98G Glioma Cell Line

Roberta Milani^*, Eleonora Brognara^*, Enrica Fabbri^*, Alessia Finotti^*, Monica Borgatti^*, Ilaria Lampronti^*, Giovanni Marzaro^†, Adriana Chilin^†, Kenneth Ka-Ho Lee^‡, Stanton Hon-Lung Kok^‡, Chung-Hin Chui^§, Roberto Gambari^*

* Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
† Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
‡ School of Biomedical Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, P.R. China
§ Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Prince of Wales Hospital, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, P.R. China

Oncology Research 2018, 26(9), 1307-1315. https://doi.org/10.3727/096504017X14928634401187

Abstract

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a malignant tumor of the central nervous system, has a high mortality rate. No curative treatment is presently available, and the most commonly used chemotherapeutic drug, the alkylating agent temozolomide (TMZ), is only able to increase life expectancy and is often associated with drug resistance. Therefore, an urgent need does exist for novel drugs aimed at treating gliomas. In the present study, we obtained three major results using corilagin: (a) demonstrated that it inhibits the growth of U251 glioma cells through activation of the apoptotic pathway; (b) demonstrated that it is also active on TMZ-resistant T98G glioma cells; and (c) demonstrated that when used in combination with TMZ on T98G glioma cells, a higher level of proapototic and antiproliferative effects is observed. Our study indicates that corilagin should be investigated in more detail to determine whether it can be developed as a potential therapeutic agent. In addition, our results suggest that corilagin could be used in combination with low doses of other standard anticancer chemotherapeutic drugs against gliomas (such as TMZ) with the aim of obtaining enhanced anticancer effects.

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