For the first time, scientists can see pathways to stop a deadly
brain cancer in its tracks. Researchers at Case Western Reserve
University School of Medicine have imaged individual cancer cells
and the routes they travel as the tumor spreads.
The researchers used a novel cryo-imaging technique to obtain the
unprecedented look at a mouse model of glioblastoma multiforme, a
particularly aggressive cancer that has no treatments to stop it
from spreading.
A description of their work, and images, will be published Sept. 1
in the journalCancer
Research.
"We're able to see things we couldn't before, and we can use these
images to understand how tumor cells invade and disperse," said
Susann M. Brady-Kalnay, a professor of molecular biology and
microbiology at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, and
senior author of the paper.
That information, in turn, can be used to help develop and test the
effectiveness of drugs and other therapies used to treat the
cancer, she said.
To obtain the view, the scientists used a model that included four
different cell lines of brain cancers at various stages of tumor
development and dispersion. The cancer cells were modified with
fluorescent markers and implanted in the model's brain in
collaboration with Biomedical Engineering Professor James
Basilion's lab.
The cryo-imaging system, developed by David Wilson, also a
professor of biomedical engineering at Case Western Reserve,
disassembles the brain layer by layer and reassembles the model
into a color three-dimensional digital image.
Using software and algorithms designed by the researchers, they are
able to differentiate the main tumor mass, the blood vessels that
feed the cancer and dispersing cells. The imaging system enables
them to peer at single cells and see exactly where they are in the
brain.
The lead researchers, Susan Burden-Gulley, Mohammed Qutaish and
Kristin Sullivant, found that two cell lines, a human brain cancer
LN229, and a rodent cancer CNS-1, best resemble the actions of
glioblastoma multiforme in human patients.
Reconstructions of models of those two lines enabled the
researchers to analyze the extent and patterns of cancer cell
migration and dispersal from tumors along blood vessels and white
matter tracts within the brain.
The ability to produce such clear and detailed images, the
researchers say, will be invaluable when evaluating the potency of
drugs and other therapies designed to block dispersal of
glioblastoma multiforme cells.
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Case Western Reserve University
Thanks to Case Western Reserve University for this article.