Panobinostat and its combination with 3-deazaneplanocin-A induce apoptosis and inhibit In vitro tumorigenesis and metastasis in GOS-3 glioblastoma cell lines

Aim: Glioblastoma is the most malignant primary brain tumor. The treatment consists of surgery, with or without radiotherapy, and temozolomide, with a life expectancy of 12–15 months after diagnosis. Glioblastoma is resistant to conventional antitumor therapies. In this work, we present a preliminary in vitro study of two epigenetic drugs against GOS-3 glioblastoma cells. Methods: We used (1) panobinostat, a histone deacetylase inhibitor, and (2) 3-deazaneplanocin-A (DZ-Nep), an inhibitor of enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) (enzyme of the polycomb repressor complex 2, polycomb group of proteins that trimethylate lysine 27 of histone 3-H3K27 me3-), as treatments that might modulate the PI3K pathway, affected in GOS-3 cells due to PTEN haploinsufficiency. The glioblastoma cell line GOS-3 was exposed to DZ-Nep and panobinostat treatments, separately and in combination, over a period of 2 days, after which cell migration, clonogenicity, and molecular expression characterization assays were performed. Results: Panobinostat alone or the combination of panobinostat plus DZ-Nep inhibited clonogenicity, metastasis, angiogenesis, epithelial–mesenchymal transition, and entry in the S phase of the cell cycle and induced apoptosis in GOS-3 glioblastoma cells. On the contrary, DZ-Nep inhibited cell migration (single treatment) and O(6)-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase expression (DZ-Nep or double treatment). Conclusion: Panobinostat alone or the combination of panobinostat and DZ-Nep induce apoptosis and inhibit in vitro tumorigenesis and metastasis in GOS-3 glioblastoma cell lines.