Investigation of the Impact of Foretinib on AURKA and AURKB Expression in T98 Glioblastoma Cell Line

Background: Gliomas are a common type of the primary brain tumors and account for more than 40% of all central nervous system (CNS) tumors. Glioblastoma (GBM) remains one of the most fatal human malignancies as it is highly angiogenic. Foretinib is an oral multikinase inhibitor that has been shown to exhibit antitumor activity in previous clinical studies. AURKA and AURKB have been shown to be overexpressed in various cancers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of foretinib on the expression of AURKA and AURKB in the T98 cell line. Materials and Methods: In this study, the T98 cell line was selected as an experimental model of glioblastoma. The cultured cells were exposed to different concentrations of foretinib (5 μM, 10 μM, 20 μM, and 0 μM as control). Following that, we examined the changes in the expression of AURKA and AURKB under the influence of foretinib compared to control using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Results: The expression of AURKA and AURKB were found to be significantly reduced in the foretinib treated group compared to the control. The results demonstrated that increasing the concentration of foretinib led to reduction in the expression of both the genes. Conclusion: These findings indicate that the foretinib can decrease the mRNA levels of AURKA and AURKB. Thus, we suggest that foretinib may be an effective drug for GBM treatment and can be considered for future studies.