Studies have shown that Indirubin is a component of Chinese herbal medicine and may block the spread of brain tumors.

The researchers found that the compound indirubin not only prevents the migration of glioblastoma cells, but also prevents them from spreading to other parts of the brain, as well as the migration of endothelial cells, preventing them from forming new blood vessels that the tumor needs to grow.

Glioblastoma has approximately 18,500 Americans each year, killing nearly 13,000 Americans each year. Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common and fatal form of malignancy, with an average survival of 15 months after diagnosis.

The study was published online in the journal Cancer Research.

"We have a good way to stop glioblastoma from growing in the human brain, but these therapies have failed because the tumor cells migrated from the original site to other parts of the brain," said co-pilot Fellow Dr. E. Antonio Chiocca. Director of Neurosurgery and Co-Director of the Dardinger Center for Neuro-oncology and Neuroscience.

"Our findings suggest that indirubin provides a new therapeutic strategy for these tumors, targeting both tumor invasion and angiogenesis," Chiocca said.

"This study is the first to show that the indirubin family of drugs can improve the survival rate of glioblastoma, and these drugs can inhibit the two most important markers of this malignant tumor - tumor cell invasion and angiogenesis," Lead researcher Dr Dr. said. Sean Lawler, Senior Scientist and Team Leader, Transforming Neuroscience Group, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Leeds.

Indigo is from indigo plants. It is the active ingredient in the Chinese herbal compound, called Danggui Longxiong Pill, for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia.

Chiocca, Lawler and co-workers used a variety of glioblastoma cell lines and two animal models to detect three derivatives of indirubin. The main findings include:

When human glioblastoma cells were transplanted into one brain hemisphere of mice, indirubin-treated animals survived significantly longer than the control and did not show migration of tumor cells to the opposite hemisphere.
In another experiment, indirubin reduced tumor cell migration by 40% in treated animals compared to the control group.
Treated tumors show lower vascular density and new blood vessel growth in intracranial tumors is reduced by a factor of three depending on the tumor cell line.
Laboratory tests showed that indirubin reduced endothelial cell migration by 52% to 41% compared to untreated controls.
"Overall, our results suggest that indirubins can reduce tumor invasion and tumor vasculature due to anti-migration effects on tumors and endothelial cells," Chiocca said.