Repurposing statins and phenothiazines to treat chemoresistant neuroblastoma
Relapse and treatment resistance are common in children with high-risk neuroblastoma, and novel therapies are needed. Conventional drug discovery is slow, expensive, often fails in practice, and consequently falls short in addressing pediatric and rare conditions. In such instances, drug repurposing is a promising strategy. Here, we used two independent in silico prediction tools including machine learning to identify approved drugs for repurposing against neuroblastoma. The combination of statins and phenothiazines showed strong synergistic effects in human neuroblastoma organoids, decreased tumor growth, and prolonged survival in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma patient-derived xenografts. The drug combination altered cholesterol metabolism through two different mechanisms and induced a phenotypic change toward an adrenergic state in vitro, which was associated with enhanced chemosensitivity. Integration of the drug combination into standard-of-care chemotherapy regressed tumors and prolonged survival in chemoresistant patient-derived xenografts. Thus, a combination of safe and approved medications added to standard-of-care chemotherapy outperforms chemotherapy alone in chemoresistant neuroblastoma.
Authors
- Katarzyna Radke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4460-0812)
- Alexandra Seger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3191-5302)
- Peter Spégel
- Joachim T. Siaw (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1286-4485)
- Daniel Bexell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9426-9550)
- Jane C Brennan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2923-3740)
- Karin Hansson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6993-7673)
- Daniel J. Mason
- Javanshir Esfandyari
- Emma Jane Davies (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4211-9849)
- Cesare Spadoni
- Sophie Lehn
- Kristina Aaltonen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5104-735X)
- Erick Andrés Muciño-Olmos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5018-247X)
- Oscar C. Bedoya-Reina
- Oksana Rogova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5104-2943)
- Aleksandra Adamska (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7152-4149)
- Daniel J. O’Donovan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1901-4556)
- Adriana Manas
- Neil T. Thompson
- Dora Adamič
- Kristian Pietras
- David Brown
- Ian Roberts
- Antonia Lock
- Chiara Lago
Institutions
- European Bioinformatics Institute (GB)
- Institute of Cancer Research (GB)
- Lund University (SE)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Örebro University (SE)
- Breast Cancer Now (GB)
- Hospital Universitario La Paz (ES)
- Wordsley Hospital (GB)
- Karolinska Institutet (SE)
- Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (ES)
- Hospital La Paz Institute for Health Research (ES)
Publication Details
- Journal
- EMBO Molecular Medicine
- Published
- 2025-12-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s44321-025-00349-6
- Primary Topic
- Cancer, Lipids, and Metabolism
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Cancerfonden
- Lunds Universitet
- Vetenskapsrådet
- Kungliga Fysiografiska Sällskapet i Lund
- Barncancerfonden
- Science for Life Laboratory
- Skånes universitetssjukhus