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Juan Murga



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    Lunch & Poster Display session (ID 58)

    • Event: ELCC 2019
    • Type: Poster Display session
    • Track:
    • Presentations: 1
    • Moderators:
    • Coordinates: 4/11/2019, 12:30 - 13:00, Hall 1
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      25P - Lung tumorspheres as a drug screening platform against cancer stem cells (ID 551)

      12:30 - 13:00  |  Author(s): Juan Murga

      • Abstract

      Background

      Treatment resistance and metastasis are linked to cancer stem cells (CSCs). This population represents a promising target, but remains unexplored in lung cancer. The main objective of this study was to characterize lung CSCs and discover new therapeutic strategies.

      a9ded1e5ce5d75814730bb4caaf49419 Methods

      The study was performed on NSCLC cells from 8 resected patients and 12 cell lines. Suspension cultures (tumorspheres) were established for CSCs enrichment and differentiated tumor cells were cultured as monolayers (2D). The CSCs properties of tumorspheres were assessed in vitro and in vivo. The expression of 60 CSC-related genes was analyzed by RTqPCR and the expression of 12 proteins was evaluated by immunoblot (IB) and immunofluorescence (IF). High-throughput screening was performed using Prestwick and Myria libraries. Selected drugs were administered intraperitoneally to NOD/SCID mice with tumors induced by NSCLC patient and H1650 tumorspheres.

      20c51b5f4e9aeb5334c90ff072e6f928 Results

      Lung tumorspheres showed unlimited exponential growth (>30 passages), great tumor initiation potential, differentiation capacity, and high resistance to chemotherapy agents, but not to salinomycin. Tumorspheres had significantly higher expression of CSC-related genes (ALDH1A1, KLF4, NANOG, CD44, CD90, CDKN1A, JUNB, MDM2), invasion promoters (MMP9, SNAI1, ITGA6), and Notch (NOTCH1, NOTCH3, DLL4, JAG1) and Wnt (CTNNB1, GSK3B) components than their paired adherent-cultured cells. IB confirmed the overexpression of proteins encoded by CD44, NANOG, CDKN1A, SNAI1, ITGA6, and NOTCH3, and IF showed different localization patterns on lung adenocarcinoma tumorspheres compared with the 2D cultures. Three novel drugs [Disulfiram (DSF), Compound 1 (COMP1) and Compound 2 (COMP2)] with greater cytotoxic potential against lung tumorspheres than monolayer cells were identified. These results were validated in vivo, demonstrating the capacity of these drugs to reduce tumor growth in mice.

      fd69c5cf902969e6fb71d043085ddee6 Conclusions

      Tumorspheres are a useful culture platform for CSCs characterization in a simple and cost-effective way. We found three drugs which are able to diminish the formation and viability of tumorspheres, constituting promising therapies against lung CSCs. Supported by CB16/12/00350, PI12-02838, and PI15-00753 from ISCIII.

      b651e8a99c4375feb982b7c2cad376e9 Legal entity responsible for the study

      Fundación de Investigación Hospital General Universitario de Valencia.

      213f68309caaa4ccc14d5f99789640ad Funding

      Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Oncología (CIBERONC) and Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII).

      682889d0a1d3b50267a69346a750433d Disclosure

      All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.

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