Repurposing FDA-Approved Drugs for Temozolomide-Resistant IDH1 Mutant Glioma Using High-Throughput Miniaturized Screening on Droplet Microarray Chip

Abstract

To address the challenge of drug resistance and limited treatment options for recurrent gliomas with IDH1 mutations, a highly miniaturized screening of 2208 FDA-approved drugs is conducted using a high-throughput droplet microarray (DMA) platform. Two patient-derived temozolomide-resistant tumorspheres harboring endogenous IDH1 mutations (IDH1^mut ) are utilized. Screening identifies over 20 drugs, including verteporfin (VP), that significantly affected tumorsphere formation and viability. Proteomics analysis reveals that nuclear pore complex may be a potential VP target, suggesting a new mechanism of action independent of its known effects on YAP1. Knockdown experiments exclude YAP1 as a drug target in tumorspheres. Pathway analysis shows that NUP107 is a potential upstream regulator associated with VP response. Analysis of publicly available genomic datasets shows a significant correlation between high NUP107 expression and decreased survival in IDH1^mut astrocytoma, suggesting NUP107 may be a potential biomarker for VP response. This study demonstrates a miniaturized approach for cost-effective drug repurposing using 3D glioma models and identifies nuclear pore complex as a potential target for drug development. The findings provide preclinical evidence to support in vivo and clinical studies of VP and other identified compounds to treat IDH1^mut gliomas, which may ultimately improve clinical outcomes for patients with this challenging disease.

Keywords: IDH1 mutant; NUPs; droplet microarrays; drug repurposing; lower-grade gliomas; miniaturized high throughput screening; verteporfin.