Temozolomide (TMZ), a first-line drug in glioma therapy, targets the tumor DNA at various sites. One of the DNA alkylation products is O6-methylguanine (O6MeG), which is, in the low dose range of TMZ, responsible for nearly all genotoxic and cytotoxic effects relevant for cancer therapy. There is, however, a dispute regarding whether the TMZ concentration in the tumor tissue in patients is sufficient to elicit a significant cytotoxic or cytostatic response. Although treatment with TMZ occurs repeatedly with daily doses (metronomic dose schedule) and in view of the short half-life of the drug it is unclear whether doses are accumulating. Here, we addressed the question whether repeated low doses elicit similar effects in glioblastoma cells than a high cumulative dose. We show that repeated treatments with a low dose of TMZ (5 × 5 µM) caused an accumulation of cytotoxicity through apoptosis, cytostasis through cellular senescence, and DNA double-strand breaks, which was similar to the responses induced by a single cumulative dose of 25 µM TMZ. This finding, together with the previously reported linear dose-response curves, support the notion that TMZ is able to trigger a significant cytotoxic and cytostatic effect in vivo if the low-dose metronomic schedule is applied.
Keywords: apoptosis; dose schedule; glioblastoma; metronomic doses; senescence; temozolomide.