Cytochalasin E, a Potential Agent for Anti-Glioma Therapy, Efficiently Induces U87 Human Glioblastoma Cell Death

Glioblastoma is one of the most malignant brain tumors. Current treatments for glioblastoma usually make poor responses, and novel treatment strategies are extremely imperative. Cytochalasin E was reported to inhibit angiogenesis and tumor growth in some studies, but its effects on gliomas are still unknown. In this study, we found cytochalasin E inhibits U87 human glioblastoma cell growth in a very low concentration range of 10(-8) to 10(-6) M in a time and concentration dependent manner, and the IC50 were 1.17 +/- 032 x 10(-7) M for 48 h treatment, 6.65 +/- 1.12 x 10(-8) M for 72 h and 3.78 +/- 130 x 10(-8) M for 96 h. We also found cytochalasin E induces cell-cycle G2/M phase arrest (72 h-treatment of 10(-6) M cytochalasin E caused 56.2 +/- 6.1% cells arrest in G2/M phase) and cell apoptosis (96 h-treatment of 10(-6) M cytochalasin E induced 24.1 +/- 4.2% cells apoptosis). Thus, cytochalasin E is proposed as a potential agent for glioblastoma chemotherapy.