Bcl-XL but Not Bcl-2 Is a Potential Target in Medulloblastoma Therapy

Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common solid tumour in children and, despite current treatment with a rather aggressive combination therapy, accounts for 10% of all deaths associated with paediatric cancer. Breaking the tumour cells’ intrinsic resistance to therapy-induced cell death should lead to less aggressive and more effective treatment options. In other tumour entities, this has been achieved by modulating the balance between the various pro- and anti-apoptotic members of the Bcl-2 family with small molecule inhibitors. To evaluate the therapeutic benefits of ABT-199 (Venetoclax), a Bcl-2 inhibitor, and ABT-263 (Navitoclax), a dual Bcl-XL/Bcl-2 inhibitor, increasingly more relevant model systems were investigated. Starting from established MB cell lines, progressing to primary patient-derived material and finally an experimental tumour system imbedded in an organic environment were chosen. Assessment of the metabolic activity (a surrogate readout for population viability), the induction of DNA fragmentation (apoptosis) and changes in cell number (the combined effect of alterations in proliferation and cell death induction) revealed that ABT-263, but not ABT-199, is a promising candidate for combination therapy, synergizing with cell death-inducing stimuli. Interestingly, in the experimental tumour setting, the sensitizing effect of ABT-263 seems to be predominantly mediated via an anti-proliferative and not a pro-apoptotic effect, opening a future line of investigation. Our data show that modulation of specific members of the Bcl-2 family might be a promising therapeutic addition for the treatment of MB.

Oxygen diffusion in ellipsoidal tumour spheroids

Oxygen plays a central role in cellular metabolism, in both healthy and tumour tissue. The presence and concentration of molecular oxygen in tumours has a substantial effect on both radiotherapy response and tumour evolution, and as a result the oxygen micro-environment is an area of intense research interest. Multi-cellular tumour spheroids closely mimic real avascular tumours, and in particular they exhibit physiologically relevant heterogeneous oxygen distribution. This property has made them a vital part of in vitro experimentation. For ideal spheroids, their heterogeneous oxygen distributions can be predicted from theory, allowing determination of cellular oxygen consumption rate (OCR) and anoxic extent. However, experimental tumour spheroids often depart markedly from perfect sphericity. There has been little consideration of this reality. To date, the question of how far an ellipsoid can diverge from perfect sphericity before spherical assumptions break down remains unanswered. In this work, we derive equations governing oxygen distribution (and, more generally, nutrient and drug distribution) in both prolate and oblate tumour ellipsoids, and quantify the theoretical limits of the assumption that the spheroid is a perfect sphere. Results of this analysis yield new methods for quantifying OCR in ellipsoidal spheroids, and how this can be applied to markedly increase experimental throughput and quality.