Diarylpentanoid, a curcumin analog, inhibits malignant meningioma growth in both in vitro and in vivo models.

Background: Malignant meningioma metastasizes systemically, primarily due to its role in epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Although the prognosis is extremely poor, drug development efforts have been limited, because this tumor is categorized as a rare form.

Aim: To examine growth suppressive effect of GO-Y030, a diarylpentanoid curcumin analog, (1E,4E)-1,5-bis [3,5-bis (methoxymethoxy) phenyl] penta-1,4-dien-3-one against the malignant meningioma.

Methods: The growth suppression of malignant meningioma cells by GO-Y022 and GO-Y030 were examined, using IOMM-Lee and HKBMM cell lines. Male nude mice aged eight weeks, specifically BALB/cSlc-nu/nu mice received a subcutaneous inoculation of IOMM-Lee (10⁷ cells/site) on their back and 30 μg/kg of recombinant hepatocellular growth factor (HGF) was injected into the tumor every three days. After confirmed the growth tumor mass, 500 μL of GO-Y030 diluted with PBS were administrated intraperitoneally daily at doses of 1 mg/kg and 2 mg/kg, respectively.

Results: GO-Y030 exhibits a growth inhibitory effect on malignant meningioma cell lines, IOMM-Lee and HKBMM ranging from 0.8-2.0 μM in vitro. Notably, GO-Y030's inhibitory effect is about 10 to 16^th times more potent than that of curcumin, which has previously demonstrated potential in combating malignant meningioma. In mouse models, the intraperitoneal administration of GO-Y030 effectively suppresses the growth of malignant meningioma tumors that have been inoculated in the back (P = 0.002). High-performance liquid chromatography analysis has confirmed the distribution of GO-Y030 in the bloodstream and brain tissue. Moreover, GO-Y030 demonstrates the ability to significantly suppress HGF (P < 0.01), nuclear factor kappa B (P < 0.001), and N-cadherin (P < 0.001), all of which contribute to the epithelial-mesenchymal transition.

Conclusion: GO-Y030 holds promise as a potent compound for the systemic inhibition of malignant meningioma. GO-Y030 has higher tumor growth inhibitory effect against meningiomas than curcumin, which is known to have antitumor activity through multi-molecular target control resulting in apoptosis induction. GO-Y030 controls at least three molecules of HGF, nuclear factor kappa B, and N-cadherin.