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Intra-adrenal murine TH-MYCN neuroblastoma tumors grow more aggressive and exhibit a distinct tumor microenvironment relative to their subcutaneous equivalents.

ABSTRACT: In around half of the patients with neuroblastoma (NBL), the primary tumor is located in one of the adrenal glands. We have previously reported on a transplantable TH-MYCN model of subcutaneous (SC) growing NBL in C57Bl/6 mice for immunological studies. In this report, we describe an orthotopic TH-MYCN transplantable model where the tumor cells were injected intra-adrenally (IA) by microsurgery. Strikingly, 9464D cells grew out much faster in IA tumors compared to the subcutis. Tumors were infiltrated by equal numbers of lymphocytes and myeloid cells. Within the myeloid cell population, however, tumor-infiltrating macrophages were more abundant in IA tumors compared to SC tumors and expressed lower levels of MHC class II, indicative of a more immunosuppressive phenotype. Using 9464D cells stably expressing firefly luciferase, enhanced IA tumor growth could be confirmed using bioluminescence. Collectively, these data show that the orthotopic IA localization of TH-MYCN cells impacts the NBL tumor microenvironment, resulting in a more stringent NBL model to study novel immunotherapeutic approaches for NBL.

SUBMITTER: Kroesen M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4412512 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Intra-adrenal murine TH-MYCN neuroblastoma tumors grow more aggressive and exhibit a distinct tumor microenvironment relative to their subcutaneous equivalents.

Kroesen Michiel M Brok Ingrid C IC Reijnen Daphne D van Hout-Kuijer Maaike A MA Zeelenberg Ingrid S IS Den Brok Martijn H MH Hoogerbrugge Peter M PM Adema Gosse J GJ

Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII 20150217 5

In around half of the patients with neuroblastoma (NBL), the primary tumor is located in one of the adrenal glands. We have previously reported on a transplantable TH-MYCN model of subcutaneous (SC) growing NBL in C57Bl/6 mice for immunological studies. In this report, we describe an orthotopic TH-MYCN transplantable model where the tumor cells were injected intra-adrenally (IA) by microsurgery. Strikingly, 9464D cells grew out much faster in IA tumors compared to the subcutis. Tumors were infil ...[more]

PMID: 25687736

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Project description:BackgroundThe TH-MYCN transgenic neuroblastoma model, with targeted MYCN expression to the developing neural crest, has been used to study neuroblastoma development and evaluate novel targeted tumor therapies.MethodsWe followed tumor development in 395 TH-MYCN (129X1/SvJ) mice (125 negative, 206 hemizygous and 64 homozygous mice) by abdominal palpations up to 40 weeks of age. DNA sequencing of MYCN in the original plasmid construct and mouse genomic DNA was done to verify the accuracy. Copy number analysis with Affymetrix® Mouse Diversity Genotyping Arrays was used to characterize acquired genetic aberrations.ResultsDNA sequencing confirmed presence of human MYCN cDNA in genomic TH-MYCN DNA corresponding to the original plasmid construct. Tumor incidence and growth correlated significantly to transgene status with event-free survival for hemizygous mice at 50%, and 0% for homozygous mice. Hemizygous mice developed tumors at 5.6-19 weeks (median 9.1) and homozygous mice at 4.0-6.9 weeks (5.4). The mean treatment window, time from palpable tumor to sacrifice, for hemizygous and homozygous mice was 15 and 5.2 days, respectively. Hemizygous mice developing tumors as early as homozygous mice had a longer treatment window. Age at tumor development did not influence treatment window for hemizygous mice, whereas treatment window in homozygous mice decreased significantly with increasing age. Seven out of 10 analysed tumors had a flat DNA profile with neither segmental nor numerical chromosomal aberrations. Only three tumors from hemizygous mice showed acquired genetic features with one or more numerical aberrations. Of these, one event corresponded to gain on the mouse equivalent of human chromosome 17.ConclusionHemizygous and homozygous TH-MYCN mice have significantly different neuroblastoma incidence, tumor growth characteristics and treatment windows but overlap in age at tumor development making correct early genotyping essential to evaluate therapeutic interventions. Contrasting previous studies, our data show that TH-MYCN tumors have few genetic aberrations.

Project description:In neuroblastoma, amplification of the oncogenic basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor (TF) MYCN is the defining prognosticator of high-risk disease, occurs in one-third of neuroblastoma, and drastically reduces overall survival rates. As a proto-oncogene, targeted MYCN overexpression in peripheral neural crest is sufficient to initiate disease in mouse models. In MYCN amplified neuroblastoma, elevated expression of the factor is crucial to maintain tumor stemness and is associated with increased proliferation and aberrant cell cycle progression, as these tumors lack the ability to arrest in G1 in response to irradiation. MYCN down-regulation broadly reverses these oncogenic phenotypes in a variety of neuroblastoma models and recent thereapeutic strategies to indirectly target MYCN production or protein stability have reduced tumor growth in vivo. These observations motivate an investigation of MYCN binding in MYCN amplified tumors as it remains fundamentally unclear how elevated levels of the factor occupy the genome and alter transcriptional programs in neuroblastoma. Here we present the first dynamic chromatin and transcriptional landscape of direct MYCN perturbation in neuroblastoma. We find that at oncogenic levels, MYCN associates with E-box (CANNTG) binding motifs in an affinity dependent manner across most active cis-regulatory promoters and enhancers. MYCN shutdown globally reduces histone acetylation and transcription, consistent with prior descriptions of MYC proteins as non-linear amplifiers of gene expression. We establish that MYCN load at the promoter and proximal enhancers predicts transcriptional responsiveness to MYCN shutdown and that MYCN enhancer binding occurs prominently at the most strongly occupied and down-regulated genes, suggesting a role for these tissue specific elements in predicating MYCN responsive “target” genes. At these invaded enhancers, we identify the lineage specific bHLH TWIST1 as a key collaborator and dependency of oncogenic MYCN. These data suggest that MYCN enhancer invasion helps shape transcriptional amplification of the neuroblastoma gene expression program to promote tumorigenesis.

Project description:PURPOSE:To evaluate noninvasive and clinically translatable magnetic resonance (MR) imaging biomarkers of therapeutic response in the TH-MYCN transgenic mouse model of aggressive, MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS:All experiments were performed in accordance with the local ethical review panel and the UK Home Office Animals Scientific Procedures Act 1986 and with the UK National Cancer Research Institute guidelines for the welfare of animals in cancer research. Multiparametric MR imaging was performed of abdominal tumors found in the TH-MYCN model. T2-weighted MR imaging, quantitation of native relaxation times T1 and T2, the relaxation rate R2*, and dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging were used to monitor tumor response to cyclophosphamide (25 mg/kg), the vascular disrupting agent ZD6126 (200 mg/kg), or the antiangiogenic agent cediranib (6 mg/kg, daily). Any significant changes in the measured parameters, and in the magnitude of the changes after treatment between treated and control cohorts, were identified by using Student two-tailed paired and unpaired t test, respectively, with a 5% level of significance. RESULTS:Treatment with cyclophosphamide or cediranib induced a 54% or 20% reduction in tumor volume at 48 hours, respectively (P < .005 and P < .005, respectively; P < .005 and P < .005 versus control, respectively). Treatment with ZD6126 induced a 45% reduction in mean tumor volume 24 hours after treatment (P < .005; P < .005 versus control). The antitumor activity of cyclophosphamide, cediranib, and ZD6126 was consistently associated with a decrease in tumor T1 (P < .005, P < .005, and P < .005, respectively; P < .005, P < .005, and P < .005 versus control, respectively) and with a correlation between therapy-induced changes in native T1 and changes in tumor volume (r = 0.56; P < .005). Tumor response to cediranib was also associated with a decrease in the dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging-derived volume transfer constant (P = .07; P < .05 versus control) and enhancing fraction (P < .05; P < .01 versus control), and an increase in R2* (P < .005; P < .05 versus control). CONCLUSION:The T1 relaxation time is a robust noninvasive imaging biomarker of response to therapy in tumors in TH-MYCN mice, which emulate high-risk neuroblastoma in children. T1 measurements can be readily implemented on clinical MR systems and should be investigated in translational clinical trials of new targeted therapies for pediatric neuroblastoma. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL:http://radiology.rsna.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1148/radiol.12120128/-/DC1.

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Intra-adrenal murine TH-MYCN neuroblastoma tumors grow more aggressive and exhibit a distinct tumor microenvironment relative to their subcutaneous equivalents.

Publications

Intra-adrenal murine TH-MYCN neuroblastoma tumors grow more aggressive and exhibit a distinct tumor microenvironment relative to their subcutaneous equivalents.

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