Subject collection: Model Systems in Drug Discovery
- The secret lives of cancer cell lines
Summary: A recent study in Nature demonstrated that ongoing mutational processes cause significant heterogeneity of widely used cancer cell lines. In this Editorial, the authors discuss the implications of these findings for the cancer and cell biology fields.
- Generation of mouse-zebrafish hematopoietic tissue chimeric embryos for hematopoiesis and host-pathogen interaction studies
Editor's choice: A new method to xenotransplant murine bone marrow cells into zebrafish blastulae that generates hundreds of transient chimeric animals with functional murine blood progenitor cells and innate immune cells.
- Optimizing the design of population-based patient-derived tumor xenograft studies to better predict clinical response
Summary: A freely available interactive tool is presented that explores the optimal design of a population PDX preclinical study.
- Studying the differential efficacy of postsymptom antitoxin treatment in type A versus type B botulism using a rabbit spirometry model
Summary: Here, we used a quantitative rabbit respiratory model to study the human-related, differential antitoxin efficacy observed in type A and type B botulism.
- A nonalcoholic fatty liver disease model in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived hepatocytes, created by endoplasmic reticulum stress-induced steatosis
Summary: Our study demonstrates expanded use of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived hepatocytes for molecular studies and drug screening, to evaluate new therapeutics with an antisteatotic mechanism of action for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
- A Langendorff-like system to quantify cardiac pump function in adult zebrafish
Summary: Here, we describe a new experimental tool to assess contractility of the isolated zebrafish heart perfused in a Langendorff-like system, which will facilitate using zebrafish as a model for human cardiomyopathies.
- Idebenone and coenzyme Q10 are novel PPARα/γ ligands, with potential for treatment of fatty liver diseases
Summary: A zebrafish screen identifies a novel PPARα/γ ligand, idebenone, with potential for treatment of fatty liver diseases, as seen by testing it in a mouse model of type 2 diabetes.
- Modelling glioblastoma tumour-host cell interactions using adult brain organotypic slice co-culture
Editor's choice: A new ex vivo experimental approach to explore how glioblastoma stem cells interact with distinct brain microenvironments, with potential use a as preclinical model using new anticancer agents.
- Curcumin and derivatives function through protein phosphatase 2A and presenilin orthologues in Dictyostelium discoideum
Summary: To unlock the therapeutic potential of curcumin and related compounds, we employ a tractable model system to characterise their cellular and molecular effects and propose novel targets implicated in disease.
- Expanding primary cells from mucoepidermoid and other salivary gland neoplasms for genetic and chemosensitivity testing
Summary: Genetics and therapeutic responses of uncommon neoplasms, including salivary gland cancers, are investigatable through isolation of primary cells from patient material using conditional reprogramming cell technology without compromising pathological diagnosis.