10th Anniversary: Most popular articles in Journal of Materials Chemistry B.

The paper “Boron clusters (ferrabisdicarbollides) shaping the future as radiosensitizers for multimodal (chemo/radio/PBFR) therapy of glioblastoma” has been selected to be part of the Most popular’ anniversary collection, to celebrate 10 years of high quality, impactful and timely research in Journal of Materials Chemistry B.

Amanda Muñoz-Juan current NN group member published this paper in October of 2022 as a collaboration with other groups and under the supervision of Anna Laromaine. This amazing research where is presented the study on the highly stable and amphiphilic metallacarboranes, ferrabis(dicarbollides) ([o-FESAN]⁻ and [8,8′-I2-o-FESAN]⁻), as potential radiosensitizers for glioblastoma multiforme radiotherapy has been selected to be part of the ‘Most popular’ 10th anniversary collection in Journal of Materials Chemistry B. Congratulations Amanda and Anna!

 

Abstract:

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and fatal primary brain tumor, and is highly resistant to conventional radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Therefore, the development of multidrug resistance and tumor recurrence are frequent. Given the poor survival with the current treatments, new therapeutic strategies are urgently needed. Radiotherapy (RT) is a common cancer treatment modality for GBM. However, there is still a need to improve RT efficiency, while reducing the severe side effects. Radiosensitizers can enhance the killing effect on tumor cells with less side effects on healthy tissues. Herein, we present our pioneering study on the highly stable and amphiphilic metallacarboranes, ferrabis(dicarbollides) ([o-FESAN]⁻ and [8,8′-I2-o-FESAN]⁻), as potential radiosensitizers for GBM radiotherapy. We propose radiation methodologies that utilize secondary radiation emissions from iodine and iron, using ferrabis(dicarbollides) as iodine/iron donors, aiming to achieve a greater therapeutic effect than that of a conventional radiotherapy. As a proof-of-concept, we show that using 2D and 3D models of U87 cells, the cellular viability and survival were reduced using this treatment approach. We also tested for the first time the proton boron fusion reaction (PBFR) with ferrabis(dicarbollides), taking advantage of their high boron (¹¹B) content. The results from the cellular damage response obtained suggest that proton boron fusion radiation therapy, when combined with boron-rich compounds, is a promising modality to fight against resistant tumors. Although these results are encouraging, more developments are needed to further explore ferrabis(dicarbollides) as radiosensitizers towards a positive impact on the therapeutic strategies for GBM.