Neuroblastoma was one of the most life-threatening
cancer developed in children, yet the conventional
therapies currently used leave an unmet gap for clinical requirements.
Temozolomide is the first line of
drug in the treatment of neuroblastorma nowadays. Giving the fact that
temozolomide treatment offered limited healing effect and patients responded divergently, an alternative beneficial path is urgently requested.
Nifurtimox, a
drug against Trypanosoma cruzi, was happened to find competent in treating a patient who carried aggressive
neuroblastoma. Although in vitro studies demonstrated that
nifurtimox has cytotoxic features against
tumor cells, a systematic investigation in vivo is generally inadequate. Here we exhibited that
nifurtimox could suppress the progression of
neuroblastoma in vivo, while maintain the health condition to a great extent. Importantly, as comparing to
temozolomide,
nifurtimox presented a stronger effect on inhibiting
tumor development, strongly suggesting that
nifurtimox is a preferential alternative
drug in treating
neuroblastoma. Additionally, it was shown that Akt-GSK3β signaling cascade was involved in
tumor arrest induced by
nifurtimox.