Preclinical Studies with Glioblastoma Brain Organoid Co-Cultures Show Efficient 5-ALA Photodynamic Therapy.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

The high recurrence of glioblastoma (GB) that occurs adjacent to the resection cavity within two years of diagnosis urges an improvement of therapies oriented to GB local control. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been proposed to cleanse infiltrating tumor cells from parenchyma to ameliorate short long-term progression-free survival. We examined 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA)-mediated PDT effects as therapeutical treatment and determined optimal conditions for PDT efficacy without causing phototoxic injury to the normal brain tissue.

METHODS:

We used a platform of Glioma Initiation Cells (GICs) infiltrating cerebral organoids with two different glioblastoma cells, GIC7 and PG88. We measured GICs-5-ALA uptake and PDT/5-ALA activity in dose-response curves and the efficacy of the treatment by measuring proliferative activity and apoptosis.

RESULTS:

5-ALA (50 and 100 µg/mL) was applied, and the release of protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) fluorescence measures demonstrated that the emission of PpIX increases progressively until its stabilization at 24 h. Moreover, decreased proliferation and increased apoptosis corroborated the effect of 5-ALA/PDT on cancer cells without altering normal cells.

CONCLUSIONS:

We provide evidence about the effectiveness of PDT to treat high proliferative GB cells in a complex in vitro system, which combines normal and cancer cells and is a useful tool to standardize new strategic therapies.

• Authors: Leire Pedrosa, Carmen Bedia, Diouldé Diao, Alejandra Mosteiro, Abel Ferrés, Elisabetta Stanzani, Fina Martínez-Soler, Avelina Tortosa, Estela Pineda, Iban Aldecoa, Marc Centellas, Marta Muñoz-Tudurí, Ana Sevilla, Àngels Sierra, José Juan González Sánchez
• Journal: Cells (Cells) Vol. 12 Issue 8 (04 10 2023) ISSN: 2073-4409 [Electronic] Switzerland
• PMID: 37190034 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Photosensitizing Agents
• Aminolevulinic Acid

Topics

• Humans
• Glioblastoma (drug therapy, pathology)
• Photosensitizing Agents (pharmacology, therapeutic use)
• Photochemotherapy
• Coculture Techniques
• Brain Neoplasms (drug therapy, pathology)
• Cell Line, Tumor
• Aminolevulinic Acid (pharmacology, therapeutic use)
• Glioma (pathology)
• Brain (pathology)
• Organoids