(ANSA) – ROME, 05 SEPTEMBER – Xenturion is born, the largest Biobank of organoids in the world. The collection, created by researchers at the Candiolo Institute – IRCCS, includes 128 3D models of metastatic colorectal tumors and will allow the study of tumor resistance mechanisms, the identification of new therapeutic targets and the development of new personalized treatments. In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers led by Livio Trusolino and Andrea Bertotti, heads of the Translational Oncology Laboratory at the IRCCS of Candiolo and professors of Histology at the Department of Oncology of the University of Turin, have demonstrated the fidelity of tumoroids to the “original” tumors of patients and the potential of these models for research.
“To demonstrate this, we conducted multidimensional omic analyses, a series of tests that allow us to obtain a broad spectrum of genetic information about the tumor,” explains Elena Grassi, who coordinated the molecular analyses on the collection. “Unlike current tumoroid biobanks, which contain a few dozen samples,” adds Livio Trusolino, “Xenurion is able to represent almost all the intertumor diversity present in patients on a population scale. Furthermore, Xenturion tumoroids were generated by metastases of cancer patients who have undergone a long series of antitumor treatments, and therefore our models preserve the clinical history of the person donating the sample in their DNA.” As proof of the faithfulness of the tumoroids to the “original” tumors of the patients, the scientists used a standard treatment for colorectal cancer on their models, the antibody targeting the EGFR protein, cetuximab.
“The tumoroids demonstrated variable sensitivity to the drug in a manner consistent with the biomarkers of clinical response – Andrea Bertotti emphasizes -. They fully reflected the diversity of response of colorectal tumors in patients”. Finally, the researchers tested the potential of their models, which can be manipulated both pharmacologically and with genetic engineering techniques, which allow specific genes to be “turned on” and “turned off” and identified the adaptive signals that the tumor elaborates to defend itself from the aggression of the drug and reduce its antiproliferative effect. “We have invested significant resources to build the infrastructure that will host the Biobank of vital tumor samples – concludes Salvatore Nieddu, General Director of the IRCSS of Candiolo – Our ambition is to offer a unique resource in terms of numbers, quality of clinical and molecular annotation and fidelity of the models to the original tumors”. (ANSA).
2024-09-06 02:03:34