Abstract 1673: Establishment and characterization of pediatric brain tumor models in an orthotopic mouse model

Abstract Brain and spinal cord tumors are the second most common group of cancers in children. For children who experience relapses of their tumors, usually after very intensive first-line therapy, curative treatment options are scarce. Thus, the need for predictive preclinical platforms explicitly for pediatric brain tumors is an urgent need. In the framework of the ITCC-P4 public-private partnership, we thus far fully established 23 pediatric brain tumor-derived PDX models. A selection of four high grade glioma, one medulloblastoma and one ependymoma models were used to validate a protocol for fluorescence-based optical imaging. Tumor growth characteristics, latency and histopathology were evaluated for the un-transduced and iRFP713-transduced models side by side. In case of iRFP713-transduced PDX models, tumor load was determined twice a week with the Pearl trilogy system (LiCor, Germany). All animals were examined for neurological symptoms daily and body weight was examined twice a week. The latency of the tumor models ranged from 29 days to 180 days. The take rate was 100% across all the models with n=12 NSG mice per setting. The transduction did not influence the take rate, but 30 - 40% more donor material was needed due to viability loss during the overnight transduction. It was not possible to determine the transduction efficiency for iRFP713 in the overnight culture as the signal is getting upregulated only 48h - 72h post transduction, e.g., when the cells are already implanted. The signal was stable for up to 180 days in the slowest tumor model ependymoma HN0579. The fastest model, high grade glioma HG0068, reached termination criteria within 24 days. Histopathological examination was strictly correlated with the tumor load determined by optical imaging in situ and ex vivo (organ imaging). The histopathological investigation of the mouse brains displayed no differences in tumor localization, size, and invasiveness between the transduced and the un-transduced lines. The proliferation rate determined by Ki-67 staining was not influenced by the modification of the cells. Further molecular and phenotypic characterization of the transduced vs the un-transduced PDX will increase the utility of this platform for the development of new drugs and the identification of innovative drug targets. Citation Format: Eva Oswald, Kanstantsin Lashuk, Johannes Gojo, Dorothee Lenhard, Norman Mack, Sonja Krausert, Daniela Lötsch, David Jones, Marcel Kool, Till Milde, Walter Berger, Stefan M. Pfister, Julia Schüler. Establishment and characterization of pediatric brain tumor models in an orthotopic mouse model [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 1673.