An approved drug reaches brain tumors and slows their repair after radiation
Original title: Adaptive nuclear GTP synthesis promotes glioblastoma treatment resistance and is a targetable vulnerability in patients
How far along is this research?
This is a preprint. Other scientists have not checked it yet, so treat it as an early signal rather than an answer.
Most of the work was in mice. A small first study only checked that the drug reached the tumor.
The short version
An approved drug reached brain tumors and blocked a step tumors use to survive radiation.
What was studied. Researchers studied how glioblastoma: A glioma that is given grade 4, the highest grade. It grows fast. Treatment usually starts soon after it is found. It often means surgery, then radiation and chemotherapy. See the glossary repairs its DNA in the hours right after radiation. They tested a drug called mycophenolate mofetil in mice, then gave it by mouth to people whose glioblastoma had come back.
What they found. Within hours of radiation, a repair enzyme moved into the center of the tumor cell. The tumor then built more of a molecule it uses to fix damaged DNA. In mice given radiation and temozolomide: A chemotherapy taken as a capsule, used for some brain tumors. Your team checks your blood counts while you are on it. See the glossary, the drug slowed that repair and the mice lived longer. In the people who took the pill, the drug reached the tumor in the brain and changed the chemicals that enzyme works on.
What this means, and what it doesn't
What it could mean: This drug is already approved and used for other reasons. That could make it easier to test alongside standard radiation and chemo for glioblastoma: A glioma that is given grade 4, the highest grade. It grows fast. Treatment usually starts soon after it is found. It often means surgery, then radiation and chemotherapy. See the glossary. Right now it shows the idea is worth testing further.
What it doesn't mean: This is not a cure, and it is not care you can ask for today. The longer survival happened in mice, not in people. The human part was a very small first study. It only checked whether the drug got into the tumor and hit its target. It did not test whether people live longer. Much more testing is needed first.
Source: medRxiv (preprint), September 25, 2026 · Read the original
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