MDB-42. Uncovering Dynamic Changes in Medulloblastoma Associated Vasculature in Zebrafish

Abstract

Medulloblastoma (MB) is an embryonal-derived lesion arising in the cerebellum, contributing to 20% of childhood brain tumours and 63% of intracranial embryonal tumours. Currently, standard of care includes surgical resection and chemotherapy, used in conjunction with radiation. While these treatments have significantly improved survival rates, the therapy side effects are detrimental to survivors’ quality of life. Furthermore, relapse occurs in 30% of patients and unfortunately these are untreatable and therefore fatal for 95% of patients. It is presumed that in patients that present with a recurrent tumour, initial treatment has been ineffective. A major cause of this can be the heterogenous vasculature in and around the tumour. Recent studies have identified that the blood brain barrier (BBB), in the context of MB, is highly heterogenous with differences in BBB cellular composition and integrity between MB sub-types and within single tumours. It remains unclear however, how these vascular differences emerge and what the primary defects are. This gap in our knowledge is mainly due to the lack of models that allow long-term live imaging. We have established a xenograft approach to examine human MB tumour cells in zebrafish embryonal brains. We have validated that human Medulloblastoma cells of the Group 3 (Gp3) MB subgroup, are viable in zebrafish brains. This work has also identified that in the presence of these human Gp3 MB tumour cells, the local vasculature becomes dysmorphic and tortuous over time. Timelapse imaging of these tumour and vasculature interactions demonstrates that there is a rapid and long ranging angiogenic response with new vessel sprouts growing towards the tumour cells. By utilising our large range of transgenic zebrafish lines, we will continue investigating how MB cells interact and alter distinctive BBB cell types and how these changes impact vessel function.