A novel technique of serial biopsy in mouse brain tumour models

PLoS One. 2017 Apr 10;12(4):e0175169. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175169. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Biopsy is often used to investigate brain tumour-specific abnormalities so that treatments can be appropriately tailored. Dacomitinib (PF-00299804) is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), which is predicted to only be effective in cancers where the targets of this drug (EGFR, ERBB2, ERBB4) are abnormally active. Here we describe a method by which serial biopsy can be used to validate response to dacomitinib treatment in vivo using a mouse glioblastoma model. In order to determine the feasibility of conducting serial brain biopsies in mouse models with minimal morbidity, and if successful, investigate whether this can facilitate evaluation of chemotherapeutic response, an orthotopic model of glioblastoma was used. Immunodeficient mice received cortical implants of the human glioblastoma cell line, U87MG, modified to express the constitutively-active EGFR mutant, EGFRvIII, GFP and luciferase. Tumour growth was monitored using bioluminescence imaging. Upon attainment of a moderate tumour size, free-hand biopsy was performed on a subgroup of animals. Animal monitoring using a neurological severity score (NSS) showed that all mice survived the procedure with minimal perioperative morbidity and recovered to similar levels as controls over a period of five days. The technique was used to evaluate dacomitinib-mediated inhibition of EGFRvIII two hours after drug administration. We show that serial tissue samples can be obtained, that the samples retain histological features of the tumour, and are of sufficient quality to determine response to treatment. This approach represents a significant advance in murine brain surgery that may be applicable to other brain tumour models. Importantly, the methodology has the potential to accelerate the preclinical in vivo drug screening process.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacology
  • Biopsy / methods*
  • Brain / diagnostic imaging
  • Brain / drug effects*
  • Brain / metabolism
  • Brain / pathology*
  • Brain Neoplasms / diagnostic imaging
  • Brain Neoplasms / drug therapy*
  • Brain Neoplasms / metabolism
  • Brain Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Glioblastoma / diagnostic imaging
  • Glioblastoma / drug therapy
  • Glioblastoma / metabolism
  • Glioblastoma / pathology
  • Humans
  • Immunohistochemistry
  • Mice, Inbred BALB C
  • Mice, Nude
  • Protein Kinase Inhibitors / pharmacology
  • Quinazolinones / pharmacology
  • Severity of Illness Index
  • Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays* / methods

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Protein Kinase Inhibitors
  • Quinazolinones
  • dacomitinib

Grants and funding

We wish to acknowledge the support of the Ethan Davies Scholarship for Brain Cancer Research (SR) and Raine Clinician Research Fellowship (NGG). Funding was also provided by the Telethon Adventurers and Cure Brain Cancer Foundation. We acknowledge Bright Blue: the Police Commissioner’s Fund for Sick Kids for supporting the purchase of microscopy equipment for the work. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.