Renal tumouroids: challenges of manufacturing 3D cultures from patient derived primary cells

Applications and Advances of Multicellular Tumor Spheroids: Challenges in Their Development and Analysis

Biomedical research requires both in vitro and in vivo studies in order to explore disease processes or drug interactions. Foundational investigations have been performed at the cellular level using two-dimensional cultures as the gold-standard method since the early 20th century. However, three-dimensional (3D) cultures have emerged as a new tool for tissue modeling over the last few years, bridging the gap between in vitro and animal model studies. Cancer has been a worldwide challenge for the biomedical community due to its high morbidity and mortality rates. Various methods have been developed to produce multicellular tumor spheroids (MCTSs), including scaffold-free and scaffold-based structures, which usually depend on the demands of the cells used and the related biological question. MCTSs are increasingly utilized in studies involving cancer cell metabolism and cell cycle defects. These studies produce massive amounts of data, which demand elaborate and complex tools for thorough analysis. In this review, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of several up-to-date methods used to construct MCTSs. In addition, we also present advanced methods for analyzing MCTS features. As MCTSs more closely mimic the in vivo tumor environment, compared to 2D monolayers, they can evolve to be an appealing model for in vitro tumor biology studies.

Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress in Renal Cell Carcinoma

The endoplasmic reticulum is an organelle exerting crucial functions in protein production, metabolism homeostasis and cell signaling. Endoplasmic reticulum stress occurs when cells are damaged and the capacity of this organelle to perform its normal functions is reduced. Subsequently, specific signaling cascades, together forming the so-called unfolded protein response, are activated and deeply impact cell fate. In normal renal cells, these molecular pathways strive to either resolve cell injury or activate cell death, depending on the extent of cell damage. Therefore, the activation of the endoplasmic reticulum stress pathway was suggested as an interesting therapeutic strategy for pathologies such as cancer. However, renal cancer cells are known to hijack these stress mechanisms and exploit them to their advantage in order to promote their survival through rewiring of their metabolism, activation of oxidative stress responses, autophagy, inhibition of apoptosis and senescence. Recent data strongly suggest that a certain threshold of endoplasmic reticulum stress activation needs to be attained in cancer cells in order to shift endoplasmic reticulum stress responses from a pro-survival to a pro-apoptotic outcome. Several endoplasmic reticulum stress pharmacological modulators of interest for therapeutic purposes are already available, but only a handful were tested in the case of renal carcinoma, and their effects in an in vivo setting remain poorly known. This review discusses the relevance of endoplasmic reticulum stress activation or suppression in renal cancer cell progression and the therapeutic potential of targeting this cellular process for this cancer.