1
|
Rahman MM, Wells G, Rantala JK, Helleday T, Muthana M, Danson SJ. In-vitro assays for immuno-oncology drug efficacy assessment and screening for personalized cancer therapy: scopes and challenges. Expert Rev Clin Immunol 2024:1-18. [PMID: 38546609 DOI: 10.1080/1744666x.2024.2336583] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2023] [Accepted: 03/26/2024] [Indexed: 04/04/2024]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Immunotherapies have revolutionized cancer treatment, but often fail to produce desirable therapeutic outcomes in all patients. Due to the inter-patient heterogeneity and complexity of the tumor microenvironment, personalized treatment approaches are gaining demand. Researchers have long been using a range of in-vitro assays including 2D models, organoid co-cultures, and cancer-on-a-chip platforms for cancer drug screening. A comparative analysis of these assays with their suitability, high-throughput capacity, and clinical translatability is required for optimal translational use. AREAS COVERED The review summarized in-vitro platforms with their comparative advantages and limitations including construction strategies, and translational potential for immuno-oncology drug efficacy assessment. We also discussed end-point analysis strategies so that researchers can contextualize their usefulness and optimally design experiments for personalized immunotherapy efficacy prediction. EXPERT OPINION Researchers developed several in-vitro platforms that can provide information on personalized immunotherapy efficacy from different angles. Image-based assays are undoubtedly more suitable to gather a wide range of information including cellular morphology and phenotypical behaviors but need significant improvement to overcome issues including background noise, sample preparation difficulty, and long duration of experiment. More studies and clinical trials are needed to resolve these issues and validate the assays before they can be used in real-life scenarios.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Md Marufur Rahman
- Sheffield Ex vivo Group, Division of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine & Population Health, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
- Directorate General of Health Services, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Greg Wells
- Sheffield Ex vivo Group, Division of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine & Population Health, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
| | - Juha K Rantala
- Sheffield Ex vivo Group, Division of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine & Population Health, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
- Misvik Biology Ltd, Turku, Finland
| | - Thomas Helleday
- Sheffield Ex vivo Group, Division of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine & Population Health, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
- Department of Oncology-Pathology, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden
| | - Munitta Muthana
- Nanobug Oncology Sheffield, Division of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine & Population Health, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
| | - Sarah J Danson
- Sheffield Ex vivo Group, Division of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine & Population Health, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Gagg H, Williams ST, Conroy S, Myers KN, McGarrity-Cottrell C, Jones C, Helleday T, Rantala J, Rominiyi O, Danson SJ, Collis SJ, Wells G. Ex-vivo drug screening of surgically resected glioma stem cells to replace murine avatars and provide personalise cancer therapy for glioblastoma patients. F1000Res 2024; 12:954. [PMID: 37799492 PMCID: PMC10548111 DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.135809.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/12/2024] [Indexed: 10/07/2023] Open
Abstract
With diminishing returns and high clinical failure rates from traditional preclinical and animal-based drug discovery strategies, more emphasis is being placed on alternative drug discovery platforms. Ex vivo approaches represent a departure from both more traditional preclinical animal-based models and clinical-based strategies and aim to address intra-tumoural and inter-patient variability at an earlier stage of drug discovery. Additionally, these approaches could also offer precise treatment stratification for patients within a week of tumour resection in order to direct tailored therapy. One tumour group that could significantly benefit from such ex vivo approaches are high-grade gliomas, which exhibit extensive heterogeneity, cellular plasticity and therapy-resistant glioma stem cell (GSC) niches. Historic use of murine-based preclinical models for these tumours has largely failed to generate new therapies, resulting in relatively stagnant and unacceptable survival rates of around 12-15 months post-diagnosis over the last 50 years. The near universal use of DNA damaging chemoradiotherapy after surgical resection within standard-of-care (SoC) therapy regimens provides an opportunity to improve current treatments if we can identify efficient drug combinations in preclinical models that better reflect the complex inter-/intra-tumour heterogeneity, GSC plasticity and inherent DNA damage resistance mechanisms. We have therefore developed and optimised a high-throughput ex vivo drug screening platform; GliExP, which maintains GSC populations using immediately dissociated fresh surgical tissue. As a proof-of-concept for GliExP, we have optimised SoC therapy responses and screened 30+ small molecule therapeutics and preclinical compounds against tumours from 18 different patients, including multi-region spatial heterogeneity sampling from several individual tumours. Our data therefore provides a strong basis to build upon GliExP to incorporate combination-based oncology therapeutics in tandem with SoC therapies as an important preclinical alternative to murine models (reduction and replacement) to triage experimental therapeutics for clinical translation and deliver rapid identification of effective treatment strategies for individual gliomas.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Hannah Gagg
- Oncology & Metabolism, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, S10 2RX, UK
| | - Sophie T. Williams
- Oncology & Metabolism, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, S10 2RX, UK
- Neurosurgery, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, S10 2JF, UK
| | - Samantha Conroy
- Oncology & Metabolism, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, S10 2RX, UK
- Urology, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, S10 2JF, UK
| | - Katie N. Myers
- Oncology & Metabolism, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, S10 2RX, UK
| | | | - Callum Jones
- Oncology & Metabolism, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, S10 2RX, UK
| | - Thomas Helleday
- Oncology & Metabolism, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, S10 2RX, UK
- Karolinska Institut, Solnavägen, Solna, 171 77, Sweden
| | - Juha Rantala
- Oncology & Metabolism, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, S10 2RX, UK
- Misvik Biology Ltd, Karjakatu, Turku, FI-20520, Finland
| | - Ola Rominiyi
- Oncology & Metabolism, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, S10 2RX, UK
- Neurosurgery, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, S10 2JF, UK
| | - Sarah J. Danson
- Oncology & Metabolism, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, S10 2RX, UK
- Weston Park Hospital, Sheffield, S10 2SJ, UK
| | - Spencer J. Collis
- Oncology & Metabolism, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, S10 2RX, UK
| | - Greg Wells
- Oncology & Metabolism, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, S10 2RX, UK
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Law AMK, Chen J, Colino‐Sanguino Y, de la Fuente LR, Fang G, Grimes SM, Lu H, Huang RJ, Boyle ST, Venhuizen J, Castillo L, Tavakoli J, Skhinas JN, Millar EKA, Beretov J, Rossello FJ, Tipper JL, Ormandy CJ, Samuel MS, Cox TR, Martelotto L, Jin D, Valdes‐Mora F, Ji HP, Gallego‐Ortega D. ALTEN: A High-Fidelity Primary Tissue-Engineering Platform to Assess Cellular Responses Ex Vivo. Adv Sci (Weinh) 2022; 9:e2103332. [PMID: 35611998 PMCID: PMC9313544 DOI: 10.1002/advs.202103332] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2021] [Revised: 04/27/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
To fully investigate cellular responses to stimuli and perturbations within tissues, it is essential to replicate the complex molecular interactions within the local microenvironment of cellular niches. Here, the authors introduce Alginate-based tissue engineering (ALTEN), a biomimetic tissue platform that allows ex vivo analysis of explanted tissue biopsies. This method preserves the original characteristics of the source tissue's cellular milieu, allowing multiple and diverse cell types to be maintained over an extended period of time. As a result, ALTEN enables rapid and faithful characterization of perturbations across specific cell types within a tissue. Importantly, using single-cell genomics, this approach provides integrated cellular responses at the resolution of individual cells. ALTEN is a powerful tool for the analysis of cellular responses upon exposure to cytotoxic agents and immunomodulators. Additionally, ALTEN's scalability using automated microfluidic devices for tissue encapsulation and subsequent transport, to enable centralized high-throughput analysis of samples gathered by large-scale multicenter studies, is shown.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Andrew M. K. Law
- The Kinghorn Cancer CentreGarvan Institute of Medical ResearchDarlinghurstNSW2010Australia
| | - Jiamin Chen
- Division of OncologyDepartment of MedicineStanford UniversityCalifornia94305USA
| | - Yolanda Colino‐Sanguino
- Cancer Epigenetic Biology and Therapeutics LaboratoryChildren's Cancer InstituteRandwickNSW2052Australia
- School of Women's and Children's Health, Faculty of MedicineUniversity of New South Wales SydneyNSW2052Australia
| | - Laura Rodriguez de la Fuente
- The Kinghorn Cancer CentreGarvan Institute of Medical ResearchDarlinghurstNSW2010Australia
- Cancer Epigenetic Biology and Therapeutics LaboratoryChildren's Cancer InstituteRandwickNSW2052Australia
| | - Guocheng Fang
- Institute for Biomedical Materials and Devices (IBMD)Faculty of ScienceThe University of Technology SydneyUltimoNSW2007Australia
| | - Susan M. Grimes
- Division of OncologyDepartment of MedicineStanford UniversityCalifornia94305USA
| | - Hongxu Lu
- Institute for Biomedical Materials and Devices (IBMD)Faculty of ScienceThe University of Technology SydneyUltimoNSW2007Australia
| | - Robert J. Huang
- Division of Gastroenterology and HepatologyDepartment of MedicineStanford UniversityCalifornia94305USA
| | - Sarah T. Boyle
- Centre for Cancer BiologySA Pathology and University of South AustraliaAdelaideSA5000Australia
| | - Jeron Venhuizen
- The Kinghorn Cancer CentreGarvan Institute of Medical ResearchDarlinghurstNSW2010Australia
| | - Lesley Castillo
- The Kinghorn Cancer CentreGarvan Institute of Medical ResearchDarlinghurstNSW2010Australia
| | - Javad Tavakoli
- School of Biomedical EngineeringFaculty of Engineering and Information TechnologyUniversity of Technology SydneyNSW2007Australia
| | - Joanna N. Skhinas
- The Kinghorn Cancer CentreGarvan Institute of Medical ResearchDarlinghurstNSW2010Australia
| | - Ewan K. A. Millar
- Department of Anatomical PathologyNSW Health PathologySt George HospitalKogarahNSW2217Australia
- St George & Sutherland Clinical SchoolUNSW SydneyNSW2217Australia
| | - Julia Beretov
- Department of Anatomical PathologyNSW Health PathologySt George HospitalKogarahNSW2217Australia
- St George & Sutherland Clinical SchoolUNSW SydneyNSW2217Australia
| | | | - Joanne L. Tipper
- School of Biomedical EngineeringFaculty of Engineering and Information TechnologyUniversity of Technology SydneyNSW2007Australia
- School of Mechanical EngineeringUniversity of LeedsLS2 9JTUK
- Department of Engineering Sciences and MathematicsLuleå University of TechnologyLuleå97187Sweden
| | - Christopher J. Ormandy
- The Kinghorn Cancer CentreGarvan Institute of Medical ResearchDarlinghurstNSW2010Australia
- St. Vincent's Clinical SchoolFaculty of MedicineUniversity of New South Wales SydneyNSW2010Australia
| | - Michael S. Samuel
- Centre for Cancer BiologySA Pathology and University of South AustraliaAdelaideSA5000Australia
- Adelaide Medical SchoolFaculty of Health and Medical SciencesUniversity of AdelaideAdelaide5000Australia
| | - Thomas R. Cox
- The Kinghorn Cancer CentreGarvan Institute of Medical ResearchDarlinghurstNSW2010Australia
- St. Vincent's Clinical SchoolFaculty of MedicineUniversity of New South Wales SydneyNSW2010Australia
| | - Luciano Martelotto
- Single Cell CoreSystems BiologyHarvard Medical SchoolHarvard UniversityMassachusetts02115USA
| | - Dayong Jin
- Institute for Biomedical Materials and Devices (IBMD)Faculty of ScienceThe University of Technology SydneyUltimoNSW2007Australia
| | - Fatima Valdes‐Mora
- Cancer Epigenetic Biology and Therapeutics LaboratoryChildren's Cancer InstituteRandwickNSW2052Australia
- School of Women's and Children's Health, Faculty of MedicineUniversity of New South Wales SydneyNSW2052Australia
| | - Hanlee P. Ji
- Division of OncologyDepartment of MedicineStanford UniversityCalifornia94305USA
| | - David Gallego‐Ortega
- The Kinghorn Cancer CentreGarvan Institute of Medical ResearchDarlinghurstNSW2010Australia
- Institute for Biomedical Materials and Devices (IBMD)Faculty of ScienceThe University of Technology SydneyUltimoNSW2007Australia
- School of Biomedical EngineeringFaculty of Engineering and Information TechnologyUniversity of Technology SydneyNSW2007Australia
- St. Vincent's Clinical SchoolFaculty of MedicineUniversity of New South Wales SydneyNSW2010Australia
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Nykänen N, Mäkelä R, Arjonen A, Härmä V, Lewandowski L, Snowden E, Blaesius R, Jantunen I, Kuopio T, Kononen J, Rantala JK. Ex Vivo Drug Screening Informed Targeted Therapy for Metastatic Parotid Squamous Cell Carcinoma. Front Oncol 2021; 11:735820. [PMID: 34604070 PMCID: PMC8481915 DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2021.735820] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2021] [Accepted: 08/23/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The purpose of ex vivo drug screening in the context of precision oncology is to serve as a functional diagnostic method for therapy efficacy modeling directly on patient-derived tumor cells. Here, we report a case study using integrated multiomics ex vivo drug screening approach to assess therapy efficacy in a rare metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the parotid gland. Tumor cells isolated from lymph node metastasis and distal subcutaneous metastasis were used for imaging-based single-cell resolution drug screening and reverse-phase protein array-based drug screening assays to inform the treatment strategy after standard therapeutic options had been exhausted. The drug targets discovered on the basis of the ex vivo measured drug efficacy were validated with histopathology, genomic profiling, and in vitro cell biology methods, and targeted treatments with durable clinical responses were achieved. These results demonstrate the use of serial ex vivo drug screening to inform adjuvant therapy options prior to and during treatment and highlight HER2 as a potential therapy target also in metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the salivary glands.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Ville Härmä
- Misvik Biology Oy, Turku, Finland.,Department of Oncology and Metabolism, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
| | | | - Eileen Snowden
- Genomic Sciences, BD Technologies, Research Triangle Park, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Rainer Blaesius
- Genomic Sciences, BD Technologies, Research Triangle Park, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Ismo Jantunen
- Central Finland Health Care District, Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Teijo Kuopio
- Central Finland Health Care District, Jyväskylä, Finland.,Department of Biological and Environmental Science, Jyväskylä, Finland
| | | | - Juha K Rantala
- Misvik Biology Oy, Turku, Finland.,Department of Oncology and Metabolism, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Mäkelä R, Härmä V, Badra Fajardo N, Wells G, Lygerou Z, Sangfelt O, Kononen J, Rantala JK. Ex vivo analysis of DNA repair targeting in extreme rare cutaneous apocrine sweat gland carcinoma. Oncotarget 2021; 12:1100-1109. [PMID: 34084283 PMCID: PMC8169071 DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.27961] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2020] [Accepted: 05/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Cutaneous apocrine carcinoma is an extreme rare malignancy derived from a sweat gland. Histologically sweat gland cancers resemble metastatic mammary apocrine carcinomas, but the genetic landscape remains poorly understood. Here, we report a rare metastatic case with a PALB2 aberration identified previously as a familial susceptibility gene for breast cancer in the Finnish population. As PALB2 exhibits functions in the BRCA1/2-RAD51-dependent homologous DNA recombination repair pathway, we sought to use ex vivo functional screening to explore sensitivity of the tumor cells to therapeutic targeting of DNA repair. Drug screening suggested sensitivity of the PALB2 deficient cells to BET-bromodomain inhibition, and modest sensitivity to DNA-PKi, ATRi, WEE1i and PARPi. A phenotypic RNAi screen of 300 DNA repair genes was undertaken to assess DNA repair targeting in more detail. Core members of the HR and MMEJ pathways were identified to be essential for viability of the cells. RNAi inhibition of RAD52-dependent HR on the other hand potentiated the efficacy of a novel BETi ODM-207. Together these results describe the first ever CAC case with a BRCAness genetic background, evaluate combinatorial DNA repair targeting, and provide a data resource for further analyses of DNA repair targeting in PALB2 deficient cancers.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Ville Härmä
- Misvik Biology Oy, Turku, Finland.,University of Sheffield, Department of Oncology and Metabolism, Sheffield, UK
| | | | - Greg Wells
- University of Sheffield, Department of Oncology and Metabolism, Sheffield, UK
| | - Zoi Lygerou
- University of Patras, Laboratory of General Biology, Patras, Greece
| | - Olle Sangfelt
- Karolinska Institutet, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Stockholm, Sweden
| | | | - Juha K Rantala
- Misvik Biology Oy, Turku, Finland.,University of Sheffield, Department of Oncology and Metabolism, Sheffield, UK
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Lehtomaki KI, Lahtinen LI, Rintanen N, Kuopio T, Kholova I, Makela R, Rantala JK, Kellokumpu-Lehtinen PL, Kononen J. Clonal Evolution of MEK/MAPK Pathway Activating Mutations in a Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Case. Anticancer Res 2019; 39:5867-5877. [PMID: 31704811 DOI: 10.21873/anticanres.13791] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2019] [Revised: 10/22/2019] [Accepted: 10/24/2019] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND/AIM The aim of this study was to examine clonal heterogeneity, to test the utility of liquid biopsy in monitoring disease progression and to evaluate the usefulness of ex vivo drug screening in a BRAF L597Q-mutated colorectal cancer (CRC) patient developing metastases during adjuvant therapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS Next generation sequencing (NGS) and droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) were performed in samples from tumor tissues and liquid biopsies. Live cancer cells from a metastatic lesion were used in ex vivo drug sensitivity assays. RESULTS We found evidence of continued dependence of MEK/MAPK pathway activation, but different activating mutations in primary tumor and metastases. Liquid biopsy based BRAF L597Q ddPCR testing was a sensitive personalized biomarker predicting the rise of clinically aggressive metastatic disease. Ex vivo drug sensitivity assays with BRAF L597Q mutated cells showed response to MEK/MAPK targeted therapies. CONCLUSION The rare BRAF L597Q mutation may be associated with aggressive tumor behavior in CRC. Liquid biopsy can be used to capture clinically relevant tumor features.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kaisa I Lehtomaki
- Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland .,Tays Cancer Center, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland
| | | | - Nina Rintanen
- Central Finland Central Hospital, Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Teijo Kuopio
- Central Finland Central Hospital, Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Ivana Kholova
- Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland.,Pathology, Fimlab Laboratories, Tampere, Finland
| | | | - Juha K Rantala
- Misvik Biology Ltd, Turku, Finland.,University of Sheffield, Sheffield, U.K
| | - Pirkko-Liisa Kellokumpu-Lehtinen
- Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland.,Tays Cancer Center, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland
| | - Juha Kononen
- Central Finland Central Hospital, Jyväskylä, Finland.,Docrates Cancer Center, Helsinki, Finland
| |
Collapse
|