Oxyphyllanene B overcomes temozolomide resistance in glioblastoma: Structure-activity relationship and...

The identification of novel therapeutic candidates from natural products for the development of chemoresistant glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) treatment has been a highly significant and effective strategy.

Sesquiterpenes are a class of naturally occurring 15-carbon isoprenoid compounds, and several types of sesquiterpenes have the ability to induce growth inhibition and apoptosis in a variety of cancer cell lines. In the present study, 56 sesquiterpenes of five types, namely, eudesmane-type (I) (1-24), eremophilane-type (II) (25-32), cadinane-type (III) (33-41), guaiane-type (IV) (42-49), and oplopanone-type (V) (50-56), were screened for their antiglioma activity, structure-activity relationship analysis (SAR), and underlying mechanism based on patient-derived recurrent GBM strains, patient-derived GBM cell sphere, GBM organoid (GBO) models, and temozolomide (TMZ)-resistant GBM cell lines.

We found that compound 12 (oxyphyllanene B, OLB) showed the most potent antiglioma activity, and we confirmed that OLB could induce apoptosis in a time- and dose-dependent manner in TMZ-resistant GBM cells and GBOs. SAR announced that the presence of an α, β-unsaturated carbonyl moiety was likely to enhance cytotoxic activities. Mechanistic studies demonstrated that OLB induced abnormal changes in ER and mitochondria-associated membrane (MAM) networks, which triggered ER stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and apoptosis. Furthermore, our findings suggested that OLB-triggered PACS2 activation might form a committed step to disrupt ER-mitochondria communication and showed for the first time that the expression levels of PACS2 might positively correlate with the progression and chemotherapy resistance of glioma.

Our results indicated that OLB might be a promising candidate for treating TMZ-resistant GBM cells by activating PACS2, which triggered a crucial event to promote the disruption of ER-mitochondria communication and overcome chemotherapy resistance of GBM.