Alkaloids of fascaplysin are effective conventional chemotherapeutic drugs, inhibiting the proliferation of C6 glioma cells and causing their death in vitro

Glioblastoma multiforme is an invasive malignant glial brain tumor with a poor prognosis for patients. The primary reasons that lead to the development of treatment resistance are associated with tumor cells infiltrating the brain parenchyma and the specific properties of tumor stem cells. A crucial research area in medical science is the search for effective agents that are able to act on these targets. Fascaplysin alkaloids possess potent antitumor activity. Modern methods for the targeted delivery of drugs reveal extensive possibilities in terms of the clinical use of these compounds. The aim of the present study was to establish effective concentrations of fascaplysin that inhibit the growth and kill the cells of glial tumors, as well as to perform a comparative analysis of fascaplysin's effectiveness in relation to other chemotherapy drugs. C6 glioma cells were utilized as an optimal model of glioblastoma. It was established that fascaplysin at 0.5 µM has a strong cytotoxic effect, which is subsequently replaced by tumor cell death via apoptosis as the length of drug exposure time is increased. Fascaplysin kills glioma cells at a dose higher than 0.5 µM. The efficiency of fascaplysin was observed to significantly exceed that of temozolomide. Therefore, a significant feature of fascaplysin is its ability to inhibit the growth of and kill multipotent tumor cells.