Modeling Brain Tumors: A Perspective Overview of in vivo and Organoid Models

Francesco Antonica; Giuseppe Aiello; Alessia Soldano; Luana Abballe; Evelina Miele; Luca Tiberi

doi:10.3389/fnmol.2022.818696

Modeling Brain Tumors: A Perspective Overview of in vivo and Organoid Models

Front Mol Neurosci. 2022 May 30:15:818696. doi: 10.3389/fnmol.2022.818696. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Francesco Antonica¹, Giuseppe Aiello¹, Alessia Soldano², Luana Abballe³, Evelina Miele³, Luca Tiberi¹

Affiliations

¹ Armenise-Harvard Laboratory of Brain Disorders and Cancer, Department of Cellular, Computational and Integrative Biology (CIBIO), University of Trento, Trento, Italy.
² Laboratory of Translational Genomics, Department of Cellular, Computational and Integrative Biology (CIBIO), University of Trento, Trento, Italy.
³ Department of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Cellular and Gene Therapy, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, Scientific Institute for Research, Hospitalization and Healthcare (IRCCS), Rome, Italy.

Abstract

Brain tumors are a large and heterogeneous group of neoplasms that affect the central nervous system and include some of the deadliest cancers. Almost all the conventional and new treatments fail to hinder tumoral growth of the most malignant brain tumors. This is due to multiple factors, such as intra-tumor heterogeneity, the microenvironmental properties of the human brain, and the lack of reliable models to test new therapies. Therefore, creating faithful models for each tumor and discovering tailored treatments pose great challenges in the fight against brain cancer. Over the years, different types of models have been generated, and, in this review, we investigated the advantages and disadvantages of the models currently used.

Keywords: Drosophila; cancer; model; mouse; organoid; xenograft; zebrafish.

Publication types

Review