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

PASCUAL PASTO G.; OLACIREGUI NG; VILA-UBACH M; PACO S; MONTERRUBIO C; RODRIGUEZ E; WINTER U; BATALLA-VILACIS M; CATALA J; SALVADOR H; PARAREDA A; SCHAIQUEVICH P; SUÑOL M; MORA J; LAVARINO C; DE TORRES C; CHANTADA GL; CARCABOSO AM

CANCER LETTERS

ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2016

0304-3835

Translational research in retinoblastoma ? a pediatric tumor that originates during the development ofthe retina ? would be improved by the creation of new patient-derived models. Using tumor samplesfrom enucleated eyes we established a new battery of preclinical models that grow in vitro in serum-free medium and in vivo in immunodeficient mice. To examine whether the new xenografts recapitulatehuman disease and disseminate from the retina to the central nervous system, we evaluated their his-tology and the presence of molecular markers of dissemination that are used in the clinical setting todetect extraocular metastases. We evaluated GD2 synthase and CRX as such markers and generated a Taqmanreal-time quantitative PCR method to measure CRX mRNA for rapid, sensitive and specific quantifica-tion of local and metastatic tumor burden. This approach was able to detect 1 human retinoblastomacell in 100.000 mouse brain cells. Our research adds novel preclinical tools for the discovery of new reti-noblastoma treatments for clinical translation