Abstract
Rhabdomyosarcomas (RMS) are the most common pediatric soft tissue
sarcomas. High-risk and metastatic disease continues to be associated
with very poor prognosis. RMS model systems that faithfully recapitulate
the human disease and provide rapid, cost-efficient estimates of
anti-tumor efficacy of candidate drugs are needed to facilitate drug
development and personalized medicine approaches. Here, we present a new
zebrafish-based xenotransplant model allowing for rapid and easily
accessible drug screening using low numbers of viable tumor cells and
relatively small amounts of water-soluble chemicals. Under optimized
temperature conditions, embryonal RMS-xenografts were established in
zebrafish embryos at 3 hours post fertilization (hpf). In
proof-of-principle experiments, chemotherapy drugs with established
clinical anti-RMS efficacy (vincristine, dactinomycin) and the MEK
inhibitor trametinib were shown to significantly reduce the
cross-sectional area of the tumors by 120 hpf. RMS xenograft models in
zebrafish embryos henceforth could serve as a valuable addition to cell
culture and mammalian models of RMS and represent a rapid and
cost-effective solution for pre-clinical candidate drug testing.