Breaking the malignant triangle in glioblastoma - ErbB1/nucleoin/Ras

Glioblastoma is one of the most malignant tumors in humans, with poor diagnosis and a low survival rate. These tumors overexpress the ErbB1 receptor and have high levels of cell surface nucleolin, which serves as an indicator for disease grade. We have previously identified a crosstalk between three oncogenes: ErbB1, Ras and nucleolin. This lead us to suggest a combined treatment using FTS, to target Ras protein, and GroA, to target cell surface nucleolin, in order to break this malignant synergy. Here we review our recent findings and suggest a model explaining drugs activities:inhibition of Ras using FTS mainly reduces cell viability and motility and inhibition of nucleolin using GroA reduces the cell proliferation. The combined treatment has a more pronounced effect on glioblastoma growth.