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    Chemotherapeutics Used for High-Risk Neuroblastoma Therapy Improve the Efficacy of Anti-GD2 Antibody Dinutuximab Beta in Preclinical Spheroid Models
    (Basel : MDPI, 2023) Troschke-Meurer, Sascha; Zumpe, Maxi; Meißner, Lena; Siebert, Nikolai; Grabarczyk, Piotr; Forkel, Hannes; Maletzki, Claudia; Bekeschus, Sander; Lode, Holger N.
    Anti-disialoganglioside GD2 antibody ch14.18/CHO (dinutuximab beta, DB) improved the outcome of patients with high-risk neuroblastoma (HR-NB) in the maintenance phase. We investigated chemotherapeutic compounds used in newly diagnosed patients in combination with DB. Vincristine, etoposide, carboplatin, cisplatin, and cyclophosphamide, as well as DB, were used at concentrations achieved in pediatric clinical trials. The effects on stress ligand and checkpoint expression by neuroblastoma cells and on activation receptors of NK cells were determined by using flow cytometry. NK-cell activity was measured with a CD107a/IFN-γ assay. Long-term cytotoxicity was analyzed in three spheroid models derived from GD2-positive neuroblastoma cell lines (LAN-1, CHLA 20, and CHLA 136) expressing a fluorescent near-infrared protein. Chemotherapeutics combined with DB in the presence of immune cells improved cytotoxic efficacy up to 17-fold compared to in the controls, and the effect was GD2-specific. The activating stress and inhibitory checkpoint ligands on neuroblastoma cells were upregulated by the chemotherapeutics up to 9- and 5-fold, respectively, and activation receptors on NK cells were not affected. The CD107a/IFN-γ assay revealed no additional activation of NK cells by the chemotherapeutics. The synergistic effect of DB with chemotherapeutics seems primarily attributed to the combined toxicity of antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity and chemotherapy, which supports further clinical evaluation in frontline induction therapy.
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    Chemotherapeutics Used for High-Risk Neuroblastoma Therapy Improve the Efficacy of Anti-GD2 Antibody Dinutuximab Beta in Preclinical Spheroid Models
    (Basel : MDPI, 2023) Troschke-Meurer, Sascha; Zumpe, Maxi; Meißner, Lena; Siebert, Nikolai; Grabarczyk, Piotr; Forkel, Hannes; Maletzki, Claudia; Bekeschus, Sander; Lode, Holger N.
    Anti-disialoganglioside GD2 antibody ch14.18/CHO (dinutuximab beta, DB) improved the outcome of patients with high-risk neuroblastoma (HR-NB) in the maintenance phase. We investigated chemotherapeutic compounds used in newly diagnosed patients in combination with DB. Vincristine, etoposide, carboplatin, cisplatin, and cyclophosphamide, as well as DB, were used at concentrations achieved in pediatric clinical trials. The effects on stress ligand and checkpoint expression by neuroblastoma cells and on activation receptors of NK cells were determined by using flow cytometry. NK-cell activity was measured with a CD107a/IFN-γ assay. Long-term cytotoxicity was analyzed in three spheroid models derived from GD2-positive neuroblastoma cell lines (LAN-1, CHLA 20, and CHLA 136) expressing a fluorescent near-infrared protein. Chemotherapeutics combined with DB in the presence of immune cells improved cytotoxic efficacy up to 17-fold compared to in the controls, and the effect was GD2-specific. The activating stress and inhibitory checkpoint ligands on neuroblastoma cells were upregulated by the chemotherapeutics up to 9- and 5-fold, respectively, and activation receptors on NK cells were not affected. The CD107a/IFN-γ assay revealed no additional activation of NK cells by the chemotherapeutics. The synergistic effect of DB with chemotherapeutics seems primarily attributed to the combined toxicity of antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity and chemotherapy, which supports further clinical evaluation in frontline induction therapy.
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    Vitronectin-based hydrogels recapitulate neuroblastoma growth conditions
    (Lausanne : Frontiers Media, 2022) Monferrer, Ezequiel; Dobre, Oana; Trujillo, Sara; González Oliva, Mariana Azevedo; Trubert-Paneli, Alexandre; Acevedo-León, Delia; Noguera, Rosa; Salmeron-Sanchez, Manuel
    The tumor microenvironment plays an important role in cancer development and the use of 3D in vitro systems that decouple different elements of this microenvironment is critical for the study of cancer progression. In neuroblastoma (NB), vitronectin (VN), an extracellular matrix protein, has been linked to poor prognosis and appears as a promising therapeutic target. Here, we developed hydrogels that incorporate VN into 3D polyethylene glycol (PEG) hydrogel networks to recapitulate the native NB microenvironment. The stiffness of the VN/PEG hydrogels was modulated to be comparable to the in vivo values reported for NB tissue samples. We used SK-N-BE (2) NB cells to demonstrate that PEGylated VN promotes cell adhesion as the native protein does. Furthermore, the PEGylation of VN allows its crosslinking into the hydrogel network, providing VN retention within the hydrogels that support viable cells in 3D. Confocal imaging and ELISA assays indicate that cells secrete VN also in the hydrogels and continue to reorganize their 3D environment. Overall, the 3D VN-based PEG hydrogels recapitulate the complexity of the native tumor extracellular matrix, showing that VN-cell interaction plays a key role in NB aggressiveness, and that VN could potentially be targeted in preclinical drug studies performed on the presented hydrogels.