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Effect of Combination Treatment of Rapamycin and Isoflavones on mTOR Pathway in Human Glioblastoma (U87) Cells

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Abstract

Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is a malignant primary brain tumor associated with poor survival rate. PI3K/Akt pathway is highly upregulated in gliomas due to deletion or mutation of PTEN and its activation is associated with tumor grade. mTOR is downstream from PI3K/Akt pathway and it initiates translation through its action on S6K and 4E-BP1. mTOR is an important therapeutic target in many cancers, including glioblastomas. Rapamycin and its analogues are known to inhibit mTOR pathway; however, they also show simultaneous upregulation of Akt and eIF4E survival pathways on inhibition of mTOR, rendering cells more resistant to rapamycin treatment. In this study we investigated the effect of combination treatment of rapamycin with isoflavones such as genistein and biochanin A on mTOR pathway and activation of Akt and eIF4E in human glioblastoma (U87) cells. Our results show that combination treatment of rapamycin with isoflavones, especially biochanin A at 50 μM, decreased the phosphorylation of Akt and eIF4E proteins and rendered U87 cells more sensitive to rapamycin treatment when compared to cells treated with rapamycin alone. These results suggest the importance of combining chemopreventive with chemotherapeutic agents in order to increase the efficacy of chemotherapeutic drugs.

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Acknowledgments

Our work was supported, in part, by grants from Faculty Research Committee grant # 937, and University Research Committee grant # FY2002-09 at Idaho State University, and NIH/NCRR INBRE grant # P20RR16454. We thank Eric Neilson for his technical help.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy and Idaho Biomedical Research Institute, Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID, 83209-8334, USA

    Shilpa Puli, Aditi Jain, James C. K. Lai & Alok Bhushan

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  1. Shilpa Puli
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  2. Aditi Jain
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  3. James C. K. Lai
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  4. Alok Bhushan
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Correspondence to Alok Bhushan.

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Puli, S., Jain, A., Lai, J.C.K. et al. Effect of Combination Treatment of Rapamycin and Isoflavones on mTOR Pathway in Human Glioblastoma (U87) Cells. Neurochem Res 35, 986–993 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-010-0142-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-010-0142-2

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