Lactate helps glioblastoma cells link up and resist a common chemo drug
Original title: Lactate Promotes Tunneling Nanotube Formation and Reduces Temozolomide Sensitivity in Glioblastoma Cells
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.
This was only done in cells in a dish, not in people.
The short version
In lab dishes, a waste product made by tumor cells helped 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 cells connect and brush off chemo.
What was studied. Researchers grew 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 cells in the lab. They added lactate, a waste product cells make when they burn sugar fast. Then they watched for tiny tubes that link one cell to another.
What they found. Lactate made the cells grow more of these tiny tubes. The cells also passed more mitochondria, their power packs, to each other. With lactate around, the chemo drug 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 slowed cell growth less. Blocking how the cells took in or broke down lactate cut the tube growth back down.
What this means, and what it doesn't
What it could mean: This hints at one reason some tumors shrug off 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. If a drug could block lactate or its effects, chemo might hold up better. For now this is a lead for researchers, not a treatment a doctor can offer.
What it doesn't mean: This work was done in cells in a dish, not in people. No patient was treated and no new drug was tested. It does not mean 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 stops working, and it is not a cure or a promise of one. Nothing about your care changes because of this study.
Source: bioRxiv (preprint), October 7, 2026 · Read the original
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