A new zebrafish model for experimental leukemia therapy

Cancer Biol Ther. 2010 Jun 1;9(11):895-902. doi: 10.4161/cbt.9.11.11667. Epub 2010 Jun 3.

Abstract

The efficacy of cyclophosphamide (CY), vincristine (VCR) and prednisolone (PRE) were studied in leukemia-bearing zebrafish larvae. A transplantable T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) line ZL1 was induced by mosaic expression of zRag2-EGFP-mMyc transgene and underwent more than 20 consecutive transplantations in adult syngeneic fish prior to the experiments. Drug efficiency was assessed by an increase of lifespan (ILS) of treated leukemia-bearing animals as compared with untreated leukemia-bearing animals. Different doses of the drugs and length of the treatment were tested. CY and VCR demonstrated therapeutic effect which was dose- and time course-dependent. The maximal increase of ILS reached 61.1% after CY (400 mg/L, 72 h) treatment and 44.4%-in VCR (4 mg/L, 72 h) treated animals. None of the tumor-bearing larvae showed complete recovery from leukemia as a result of any VCR and CY monotherapy schedule. PRE was inefficient for treatment of leukemia in zebrafish in a dose range between 1 and 50 mg/L and a treatment length between 24 and 72 h due to it toxicity exclusively towards leukemia-bearing larvae. These data demonstrate that, in addition to morphological and genetic similarities with mammalian leukemia, zebrafish T-ALL is also sensitive to the same chemotherapeutic drugs in vivo as mammals. Therefore, this model can be utilized as a cost effective system for experimental tumor therapy and large-scale screening of anticancer compounds.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Animals, Genetically Modified
  • Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacology*
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cyclophosphamide / pharmacology
  • Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins / genetics
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Larva / drug effects
  • Larva / genetics
  • Larva / metabolism
  • Leukemia, Experimental / drug therapy*
  • Leukemia, Experimental / pathology
  • Microscopy, Fluorescence
  • Precursor T-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / drug therapy
  • Precursor T-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / pathology
  • Prednisolone / pharmacology
  • Survival Analysis
  • Time Factors
  • Vincristine / pharmacology
  • Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays*
  • Zebrafish / genetics
  • Zebrafish / metabolism*

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins
  • Vincristine
  • Cyclophosphamide
  • Prednisolone