Preclinical platform of retinoblastoma xenografts recapitulating human disease and molecular markers of dissemination

PASCUAL-PASTO, GUILLEM; OLACIREGUI, NAGORE G.; VILA-UBACH, MONICA; PACO, SONIA; MONTERRUBIO, CARLES; RODRIGUEZ, EVA; WINTER, URSULA; BATALLA-VILACIS, MIREIA; CATALA, JAUME; SALVADOR, HECTOR; PARAREDA, ANDREU; SCHAIQUEVICH, PAULA; SUÑOL, MARIONA; MORA, JAUME; LAVARINO, CINZIA; DE TORRES, CARMEN; CHANTADA, GUILLERMO L.; CARCABOSO, ANGEL M.

CANCER LETTERS

ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD

Año: 2016 vol. 380 p. 10 - 19

0304-3835

Translational research in retinoblastoma - a pediatric tumor that originatesduring the development of the retina - would be improved by the creation of newpatient-derived models. Using tumor samples from enucleated eyes we established anew battery of preclinical models that grow in vitro in serum-free medium and in vivo in immunodeficient mice. To examine whether the new xenografts recapitulate human disease and disseminate from the retina to the central nervous system, weevaluated their histology and the presence of molecular markers of dissemination that are used in the clinical setting to detect extraocular metastases. Weevaluated GD2 synthase and CRX as such markers and generated a Taqman real-timequantitative PCR method to measure CRX mRNA for rapid, sensitive and specificquantification of local and metastatic tumor burden. This approach was able todetect 1 human retinoblastoma cell in 100.000 mouse brain cells. Our researchadds novel preclinical tools for the discovery of new retinoblastoma treatmentsfor clinical translation.