A new three-dimensional experimental system has been developed to study drug responses in low-grade glioma, a type of central nervous system tumor that often affects children, according to an April 9 announcement from the University of Trento, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, and Sapienza University of Rome. The findings were published in the journal Molecular Cancer.
This development is important because low-grade gliomas are among the most common brain tumors in children and can be difficult to interpret biologically. Understanding these tumors better could lead to more targeted and effective treatments.
The research team created brain organoids—miniature three-dimensional cell cultures grown from pluripotent stem cells—to replicate aspects of both healthy human brain development and tumor growth. Luca Tiberi, professor at the University of Trento's Department of Cellular, Computational and Integrative Biology, said: "In the study, we create a system in which to study low-grade tumors. The path we have taken is based on organoids that we generate in the laboratory from pluripotent cells. Once we have generated the brain organoids, we make them sick with glioma." Tiberi also noted: "In these organoids we can reproduce some characteristics of the development of both the human brain, under normal conditions, and the glioma... Organoids however still have considerable limitations... Without all the components, organoids provide only a partial representation of glioma biology and its mechanisms."
Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital contributed by analyzing molecular features and drug responses within these systems. Evelina Miele said: "These experimental study systems represent a fundamental step towards more reliable preclinical systems for pediatric tumors." She added: "We have shown that organoids reproduce in a slightly more faithful way the molecular characteristics of low-grade gliomas... They can improve the selection of therapeutic strategies and contribute to the development of more targeted approaches..."
Elisabetta Ferretti from Sapienza University explained her team's role as follows: "Sapienza University of Rome contributed to the study by selecting targeted experimental strategies and characterizing the immunohistochemical profile... It was a real team effort with colleagues from... Radiological, Oncological and Anatomical Pathological Sciences... We are very happy to have helped to create experimental systems for ...low-grade pediatric glioma that will help ...guide future therapies."
Looking ahead, Tiberi concluded: "Our work lays the foundations for platforms that are more and more representative of ...patients ...and their responses to treatments over time.... The horizon for us now is to achieve increasingly reliable experimental systems ...for research on pediatric glioma."
