A cross section of mini bone marrow organoids showing cells that produce blood platelets, in a network of blood vessels. Credit: Dr A. Khan, University of Birmingham
researchers in Oxford University and the university of birmingham have made a breakthrough in cancer treatment by creating the first human bone marrow “organoids” that accurately replicate key features of human bone marrow. The technology, which is the subject of a patent application filed by the
” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[{“>universidaddebirmingham[{“>universidaddebirmingham Enterprise enables the simultaneous screening of multiple cancer drugs and the testing of personalized treatments for individual cancer patients.
The organoids, which are described in a study recently published in the journal discovery of cancerclosely mimic the cellular, molecular, and architectural features of myelopoietic (blood cell-producing) bone marrow.
The research also showed that organoids provide a microenvironment that can accept and support the survival of cells from patients with blood malignancies, including multiple myeloma cells, which are notoriously difficult to maintain outside the human body.
Dr Abdullah Khan, Sir Henry Wellcome Fellow at the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and first author of the study, said: “Surprisingly, we found that the cells in their bone marrow organoids resemble bone marrow cells. Real bone marrow, not only in terms of their activity and function, but also in their architectural relationships: cell types ‘self-organize’ and organize themselves within organoids just as they do in the human bone marrow in the body.
This realistic architecture allowed the team to study how cells in the bone marrow interact to support normal blood cell production, and how this is altered in bone marrow fibrosis (myelofibrosis), where scar tissue builds up in the bone marrow, causing marrow failure. Bone marrow fibrosis can develop in patients with certain types of blood cancers and remains incurable.
The study’s lead author, Professor Bethan Psaila, a hematology physician and research group leader in the Radcliffe Department of Medicine,
” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[{“>OxfordUniversity[{“>UniversidaddeOxfordHe said: “To properly understand how and why blood cancers develop, we need to use experimental systems that closely resemble how real human bone marrow works, which we haven’t really had before. It’s really exciting to now have this excellent system, as we can finally study cancer directly using cells from our patients, instead of relying on animal models or other simpler systems that don’t correctly show us how cancer is developing in bone. bone marrow in real patients.
Dr Khan also added: “This is a huge step forward, allowing insight into the growth patterns of cancer cells and potentially a more personalized approach to treatment. We now have a platform that we can use to test drugs on a “personalized medicine” basis.
“Having the model developed and validated is the crucial first step, and in our ongoing collaborative work, we will work with others to better understand how the bone marrow works in healthy people and what goes wrong when they have blood diseases.”
Dr. Psaila added: “We hope this new technique will help speed the discovery and testing of new treatments for blood cancers, leading to improved drugs for our patients reaching clinical trials faster.”
Reference: «Human Bone Marrow Organoids for Disease Modeling, Discovery and Validation of Therapeutic Targets in Hematological Malignant Neoplasms» by Abdullah O. Khan, Antonio Rodriguez-Romera, Jasmeet S. Reyat; Aude-Anais Olijnik, Michela Colombo, Guanlin Wang, Wei Xiong Wen, Nicholas Sousos, Lauren C. Murphy, Beata Grygielska, Gina Perrella, Christopher B. Mahony, Rebecca E. Ling, Natalina E. Elliott, Christina Simoglou Karali, Andrew P Stone, Samuel Kemble, Emily A. Cutler, Adele K. Fielding, Adam P. Croft, David Bassett, Gowsihan Poologasundarampillai, Anindita Roy, Sarah Gooding, Julie Rayes, Kellie R. Machlus and Bethan Psaila, November 9, 2022. discovery of cancer.
DOI: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-22-0199