Mon Sep 23 18:23:45 UTC 2024: ## Antidepressant Shows Promise in Fighting Aggressive Brain Cancer
**Zurich, Switzerland** – Researchers at ETH Zurich have discovered a promising new treatment for glioblastoma, an aggressive and currently incurable brain tumor. They found that the antidepressant vortioxetine, already approved for use by the FDA and Swissmedic, effectively kills glioblastoma cells in laboratory settings.
The discovery was made using a novel drug screening platform called pharmacoscopy, developed by the ETH Zurich team. This platform allows researchers to simultaneously test hundreds of substances on living cells from human cancer tissue. By analyzing the effects of these substances on the cancer cells, researchers can identify potential new treatments.
In this study, the team tested 130 different agents on tumor tissue from 40 patients, focusing on neuroactive substances that can cross the blood-brain barrier, such as antidepressants, Parkinson’s medication, and antipsychotics.
Their results showed that several antidepressants, including vortioxetine, were unexpectedly effective against the tumor cells. Vortioxetine, in particular, was found to trigger a signaling cascade that suppresses cell division, a crucial step in stopping the tumor’s growth.
Further testing in mice confirmed vortioxetine’s efficacy, especially when combined with standard glioblastoma treatments. This led the researchers to launch two clinical trials: one testing vortioxetine in addition to standard treatment and another using pharmacoscopy to personalize drug selections for individual patients.
“The advantage of vortioxetine is that it is safe and very cost-effective,” says Michael Weller, a professor at the University Hospital Zurich and co-author of the study. “As the drug has already been approved, it doesn’t have to undergo a complex approval procedure and could soon supplement the standard therapy for this deadly brain tumor.”
However, researchers caution against self-medicating with vortioxetine. “We don’t yet know whether the drug works in humans and what dose is required to combat the tumor, which is why clinical trials are necessary,” says Weller.
If effective in humans, vortioxetine could become the first new treatment for glioblastoma in decades, offering hope to patients battling this devastating disease.
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