Dubois, Claire M

Abstract Background High-grade gliomas (HGG) are aggressive brain tumors associated with short median patient survival and limited response to therapies, driving the need to develop tools to improve patient outcomes. Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models, such as mouse PDX, have emerged as potential Avatar platforms for personalized oncology approaches, but the difficulty for some human grafts to grow successfully and the long time required for mice to develop tumors preclude their use for HGG. Methods We used a rapid and efficient ex-ovo chicken embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) culture system to evaluate the efficacy of oncologic drug options for HGG patients. Results Implantation of fresh glioma tissue fragments from 59 of 60 patients, that include difficult-to-grow IDH-mutated samples, successfully established CAM tumor xenografts within 7 days, with a tumor take rate of 98.3%. These xenografts faithfully recapitulate the histological and molecular characteristics of the primary tumor, and the ability of individual fragments to form tumors was predictive of poor patient prognosis. Treatment of drug-sensitive or drug-resistant xenografts indicates that the CAM-glioma assay enables testing tumor sensitivity to temozolomide and carboplatin at doses consistent with those administered to patients. In a proof-of-concept study involving 14 HGG patients, we observed a correlation of 100% between the CAM xenograft response to temozolomide or carboplatin and the clinical response of patients. Conclusion The CAM-glioma model is a fast and reliable assay that has the potential to serve as a complementary model to drug discovery and a real-time Avatar platform to predict the best treatment for HGG patients.

AbstractOsteoblast differentiation is controlled by transcription factor RUNX2 which temporally activates or represses several bone‐related genes, including those encoding extracellular matrix proteins or factors that control cell‐cell, and cell‐matrix interactions. Cell‐cell communication in the many skeletal pericellular micro‐niches is critical for bone development and involves paracrine secretion of growth factors and morphogens. This paracrine signaling is in part regulated by “A Disintegrin And Metalloproteinase” (ADAM) proteins. These cell membrane‐associated metalloproteinases support proteolytic release (“shedding”) of protein ectodomains residing at the cell surface. We analyzed microarray and RNA‐sequencing data for Adam genes and show that Adam17, Adam10, and Adam9 are stimulated during BMP2 mediated induction of osteogenic differentiation and are robustly expressed in human osteoblastic cells. ADAM17, which was initially identified as a tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) converting enzyme also called (TACE), regulates TNFα‐signaling pathway, which inhibits osteoblast differentiation. We demonstrate that Adam17 expression is suppressed by RUNX2 during osteoblast differentiation through the proximal Adam17 promoter region (−0.4 kb) containing two functional RUNX2 binding motifs. Adam17 downregulation during osteoblast differentiation is paralleled by increased RUNX2 expression, cytoplasmic‐nuclear translocation and enhanced binding to the Adam17 proximal promoter. Forced expression of Adam17 reduces Runx2 and Alpl expression, indicating that Adam17 may negatively modulate osteoblast differentiation. These findings suggest a novel regulatory mechanism involving a reciprocal Runx2‐Adam17 negative feedback loop to regulate progression through osteoblast differentiation. Our results suggest that RUNX2 may control paracrine signaling through regulation of ectodomain shedding at the cell surface of osteoblasts by directly suppressing Adam17 expression.