Metastasis in the wild: investigating metastasis in non-laboratory animals

Nano-Based Drug Delivery Systems: Potential Developments in the Therapy of Metastatic Osteosarcoma-A Narrative Review

Osteosarcoma, a predominant malignant bone tumor, poses significant challenges due to its high metastatic and recurrent nature. Although various therapeutic strategies are currently in use, they often inadequately target osteosarcoma metastasis. This review focuses on the potential of nanoscale drug delivery systems to bridge this clinical gap. It begins with an overview of the molecular mechanisms underlying metastatic osteosarcoma, highlighting the limitations of existing treatments. The review then transitions to an in-depth examination of nanoscale drug delivery technologies, emphasizing their potential to enhance drug bioavailability and reduce systemic toxicity. Central to this review is a discussion of recent advancements in utilizing nanotechnology for the potential intervention of metastatic osteosarcoma, with a critical analysis of several preclinical studies. This review aims to provide insights into the potential applications of nanotechnology in metastatic osteosarcoma therapy, setting the stage for future clinical breakthroughs and innovative cancer treatments.

A Review on Alternative Methods to Experimental Animals in Biological Testing: Recent Advancement and Current Strategies

With an increase in the progression of research and development in the medical field, the experimental use of animals for the efficacy and safety testing of pharmaceuticals is on rise. Every year, millions of animals are used for experimental testing during which these suffer from pain and are then eventually sacrificed. Besides bioethical issues, animal experimentation is associated with many disadvantages like high cost, the requirement of skilled manpower, approval, and is time-consuming. Therefore, attempts have been made by researchers to design and develop a number of alternative methods that could bypass animal experiments. These methods not only give accurate results but can also save lives of millions of animals annually. Research techniques, including computer and robotics together with molecular biology techniques, are applied to discover new methods to replace animal testing. Several alternative methods are discussed in this review. Some of these methods can predict the behavior of drugs accurately and are as reliable as in-vivo animal models. Furthermore, these alternative methods offer a variety of advantages over experimental animals. However, there is still a great need to discover and develop new, accurate, and reliable methods to replace experimental animals.

Extracellular vesicle proteomes of two transmissible cancers of Tasmanian devils reveal tenascin-C as a serum-based differential diagnostic biomarker

The iconic Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) is endangered due to the transmissible cancer Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD), of which there are two genetically independent subtypes (DFT1 and DFT2). While DFT1 and DFT2 can be differentially diagnosed using tumour biopsies, there is an urgent need to develop less-invasive biomarkers that can detect DFTD and distinguish between subtypes. Extracellular vesicles (EVs), the nano-sized membrane-enclosed vesicles present in most biofluids, represent a valuable resource for biomarker discovery. Here, we characterized the proteome of EVs from cultured DFTD cells using data-independent acquisition-mass spectrometry and an in-house spectral library of > 1500 proteins. EVs from both DFT1 and DFT2 cell lines expressed higher levels of proteins associated with focal adhesion functions. Furthermore, hallmark proteins of epithelial-mesenchymal transition were enriched in DFT2 EVs relative to DFT1 EVs. These findings were validated in EVs derived from serum samples, revealing that the mesenchymal marker tenascin-C was also enriched in EVs derived from the serum of devils infected with DFT2 relative to those infected with DFT1 and healthy controls. This first EV-based investigation of DFTD increases our understanding of the cancers' EVs and their possible involvement in DFTD progression, such as metastasis. Finally, we demonstrated the potential of EVs to differentiate between DFT1 and DFT2, highlighting their potential use as less-invasive liquid biopsies for the Tasmanian devil.

A Systems-Based Key Innovation-Driven Approach Infers Co-option of Jaw Developmental Programs During Cancer Progression

Cancer acquires metastatic potential and evolves via co-opting gene regulatory networks (GRN) of embryonic development and tissue homeostasis. Such GRNs are encoded in the genome and frequently conserved among species. Considering that all metazoa have evolved from a common ancestor via major macroevolutionary events which shaped those GRNs and increased morphogenetic complexity, we sought to examine whether there are any key innovations that may be consistently and deterministically linked with metastatic potential across the metazoa clades. To address tumor evolution relative to organismal evolution, we revisited and retrospectively juxtaposed seminal laboratory and field cancer studies across taxa that lie on the evolutionary lineage from cnidaria to humans. We subsequently applied bioinformatics to integrate species-specific cancer phenotypes, multiomics data from up to 42 human cancer types, developmental phenotypes of knockout mice, and molecular phylogenetics. We found that the phenotypic manifestations of metastasis appear to coincide with agnatha-to-gnathostome transition. Genes indispensable for jaw development, a key innovation of gnathostomes, undergo mutations or methylation alterations, are aberrantly transcribed during tumor progression and are causatively associated with invasion and metastasis. There is a preference for deregulation of gnathostome-specific versus pre-gnathostome genes occupying hubs of the jaw development network. According to these data, we propose our systems-based model as an in silico tool the prediction of likely tumor evolutionary trajectories and therapeutic targets for metastasis prevention, on the rationale that the same genes which are essential for key innovations that catalyzed vertebrate evolution, such as jaws, are also important for tumor evolution.

Beyond tradition and convention: benefits of non-traditional model organisms in cancer research

Traditional laboratory model organisms are indispensable for cancer research and have provided insight into numerous mechanisms that contribute to cancer development and progression in humans. However, these models do have some limitations, most notably related to successful drug translation, because traditional model organisms are often short-lived, small-bodied, genetically homogeneous, often immunocompromised, are not exposed to natural environments shared with humans, and usually do not develop cancer spontaneously. We propose that assimilating information from a variety of long-lived, large, genetically diverse, and immunocompetent species that live in natural environments and do develop cancer spontaneously (or do not develop cancer at all) will lead to a more comprehensive understanding of human cancers. These non-traditional model organisms can also serve as sentinels for environmental risk factors that contribute to human cancers. Ultimately, expanding the range of animal models that can be used to study cancer will lead to improved insights into cancer development, progression and metastasis, tumor microenvironment, as well as improved therapies and diagnostics, and will consequently reduce the negative impacts of the wide variety of cancers afflicting humans overall.