Abstract 4043: Establishment of a mouse skin squamous cell carcinoma allograft model for in vivo pharmacological analysis of immunotherapy
Authors: Qu Gavin Jiagui , An Annie Xiaoyu , Liu Jinping , Ouyang Davy Xuesong , Zhang Likun , Cai Jie , Wery Jean Pierre , Li. Henry Q. X. 
Published: July 2016

The recent clinical success of novel therapeutics blocking immune checkpoints cytotoxic T-lymphocyte associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) and programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) has fueled an intense interest around immuno-oncology. However, the lack of relevant animal models is a major bottleneck for understanding the mechanism of action and evaluating the efficacy of such therapeutics. Syngeneic mouse tumor models, despite being widely used as experimental models for efficacy studies, are limited by the restricted number of models available and responsive to current checkpoint inhibitors. Genetically engineered mouse models (GEMMs) of human cancer are effective tools for mechanistic analysis, but they are often not suitable for efficacy studies due to usually un-synchronized tumor progression. Syngeneic allografts of spontaneous mouse tumors derived from GEMMs (MuPrime®) may be used as a new type of immuno-oncology models with the following advantages: 1) their primary nature of “stem cell diseases” and relevant tumor microenvironment mirror the patient derived xenograft (PDX) models; 2) the availability of diverse cancer types and oncogenic drivers deriving from a wide range of GEMMs. We set out to build a library of allografts of spontaneous mouse tumors, including those derived from GEMM, in an immunocompetent host to support pharmacological investigation, particularly of immuno-oncology agents.

Recently, we observed the growth of spontaneous cutaneous tumors on the neck of the C57BL/6J-ApcMin/J GEMM, which is heterozygous for the Apc (APCMin/+). Histopathology suggests the tumors are well-differentiated skin squamous cell carcinoma. We subcutaneously transplanted these skin tumors into the syngeneic C57BL/6J mice. The allografts grow well, are serially transplantable and maintain the histopathology of the primary tumor. Transcriptome sequencing revealed that the allografts maintain the original ApcMin mutation, express high levels of HER2 (also confirmed by immunochemistry, or IHC), and present frameshift mutations in both c-met and EGFR. In vivo pharmacological assessment indicate that tumors respond to 5-FU, paclitaxel, gemcitabine, docetaxel, and cisplatin chemotherapy. They is also sensitive to anti-mouse CTLA-4 antibody, and the response is associated with an increased number of tumor infiltrating immune cells, including TILs. Alltogether, here we show that we have established an allograft model suitable for in vivo efficacy analysis of immunotherapy using surrogate anti-mouse antibodies.

Citation Format: Gavin Jiagui Qu, Annie Xiaoyu An, Jinping Liu, Davy Xuesong Ouyang, Likun Zhang, Jie Cai, Jean Pierre Wery, Henry Q. X. Li. Establishment of a mouse skin squamous cell carcinoma allograft model for in vivo pharmacological analysis of immunotherapy. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 4043.