Arachidonic and eicosapentaenoic acids induce oxidative stress to suppress proliferation of human glioma cells

摘要

The most malignant tumor of the brain is glioblastoma multiforme (commonly called gliomas). Despite debulking surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, the survival of patients diagnosed to have glioblastoma multiforme is not more than 44 weeks. Gliomas are difficult to treat, partly because while growing they merge with normal brain tissue and hence during surgery it is difficult to delineate the tumor tissue from normal brain tissue to excise them completely. In view of this, developing newer therapeutic strategies that target glioma cells selectively with minimal toxicity to normal brain cells is urgently needed. Previous studies performed by us and others revealed that polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), especially γ-linolenic acid (GLA, 18:3 n-6), arachidonic acid (AA, 20:4 n-6), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5 n-3) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6 n-3), have selective tumoricidal action and induce apoptosis of glioma cells both and [ – ].