3D tissue engineered plasma cultures support leukemic proliferation and induces drug resistance

Emerging Strategies in 3D Culture Models for Hematological Cancers

In vitro cell cultures are fundamental and necessary tools in cancer research and personalized drug discovery. Currently, most cells are cultured using two-dimensional (2D) methods, and drug testing is mainly performed in animal models. However, new and improved methods that implement three-dimensional (3D) cell-culturing techniques provide compelling evidence that more advanced experiments can be performed, yielding valuable new insights. In 3D cell-culture experiments, the cell environment can be manipulated to mimic the complexity and dynamicity of the human tissue microenvironment, possibly leading to more accurate representations of cell-to-cell interactions, tumor biology, and predictions of drug response. The 3D cell cultures can also potentially provide alternative ways to study hematological cancers and are expected to eventually bridge the gap between 2D cell culture and animal models. The present review provides an overview of the complexity of the lymphoid microenvironment and a summary of the currently used 3D models that aim at recreating it for hematological cancer research. We here dissect the differences and challenges between, and potential advantages of, different culture methods and present our vision of the most promising future strategies in the hematological field.

A pilot study of 3D tissue-engineered bone marrow culture as a tool to predict patient response to therapy in multiple myeloma

Cancer patients undergo detrimental toxicities and ineffective treatments especially in the relapsed setting, due to failed treatment attempts. The development of a tool that predicts the clinical response of individual patients to therapy is greatly desired. We have developed a novel patient-derived 3D tissue engineered bone marrow (3DTEBM) technology that closely recapitulate the pathophysiological conditions in the bone marrow and allows ex vivo proliferation of tumor cells of hematologic malignancies. In this study, we used the 3DTEBM to predict the clinical response of individual multiple myeloma (MM) patients to different therapeutic regimens. We found that while no correlation was observed between in vitro efficacy in classic 2D culture systems of drugs used for MM with their clinical efficacious concentration, the efficacious concentration in the 3DTEBM were directly correlated. Furthermore, the 3DTEBM model retrospectively predicted the clinical response to different treatment regimens in 89% of the MM patient cohort. These results demonstrated that the 3DTEBM is a feasible platform which can predict MM clinical responses with high accuracy and within a clinically actionable time frame. Utilization of this technology to predict drug efficacy and the likelihood of treatment failure could significantly improve patient care and treatment in many ways, particularly in the relapsed and refractory setting. Future studies are needed to validate the 3DTEBM model as a tool for predicting clinical efficacy.

Nanoparticle T cell engagers for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common type of leukemia and has a 5-year survival rate of 25%. The standard-of-care for AML has not changed in the past few decades. Promising immunotherapy options are being developed for the treatment of AML; yet, these regimens require highly laborious and sophisticated techniques. We create nanoTCEs using liposomes conjugated to monoclonal antibodies to enable specific binding. We also recreate the bone marrow niche using our 3D culture system and use immunocompromised mice to enable use of human AML and T cells with nanoTCEs. We show that CD33 is ubiquitously present on AML cells. The CD33 nanoTCEs bind preferentially to AML cells compared to Isotype. We show that nanoTCEs effectively activate T cells and induce AML killing in vitro and in vivo. Our findings suggest that our nanoTCE technology is a novel and promising immuno-therapy for the treatment of AML and provides a basis for supplemental investigations for the validation of using nanoTCEs in larger animals and patients.