Developing of 3-D CRC model for targeting the TME (MINI-RING) v1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Development of a three-dimensional (3-D) colorectal cancer (CRC) patient-derived mini-ring model for high-throughput drug screening targeting the tumour microenvironment (TME)
IRAS ID
332325
Contact name
Abdolrahman Shams-Nateri
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Nottingham
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
R02334, Funding finance project code; A948YB & A948AN, University of Nottingham budget codes
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a global public health issue with the second highest cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Even though management has improved, more than 1.9 million CRC cases and approximately 950,000 deaths occurred in 2020, representing about 1 in 10 cancer deaths, highlighting bowel related cancers represent major UK healthcare challenges.
A main problem for identifying drugs to treat bowel cancer is current simulated models and animal studies do not exactly replicate the cancer environment found in humans. This issue can lead to increased failure rates of drugs when first used in human studies, continually adding to the amount of animal experiments and cost to produce drugs. Therefore, improving the prediction of human drug responses is critical to replacing animal models and reducing costly clinical trial failures and so improve healthcare outcomes.Data from the literature suggests that the overexpression of a gene called SPOCK1 heavily influences the environment and growth of certain cancer types, importantly CRC. Recently, a method of producing a human tissue model, called a patient-derived explant (PDE), that more accurately replicates the cancer environment for anticancer drug testing has been described. Although, there can be significant variability between PDEs when they develop limiting their applications for use. However, we believe that developing a three-dimensional (3D) PDE using a mini-ring methodology would help address this variability. This method would be cost effective and critically would allow a high turnover of drug screening.
Therefore, this study aims to produce a high turnover drug screening model that resembles the CRC environment found in humans. The model will be formed by making a 3D PDE within a mini-ring platform with the overall goal of detecting the response of cancer cells and gene expression of SPOCK1 to drugs, and so help reduce animal use in anticancer drug discovery.
REC name
London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/PR/0638
Date of REC Opinion
1 Jul 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion