Neuroblastoma and DIPG Organoid Coculture System for Personalized Assessment of Novel Anticancer Immunotherapies

Cancer immunotherapy has transformed the landscape of adult cancer treatment and holds a great promise to treat paediatric malignancies. However, in vitro test coculture systems to evaluate the efficacy of immunotherapies on representative paediatric tumour models are lacking. Here, we describe a detailed procedure for the establishment of an ex vivo test coculture system of paediatric tumour organoids and immune cells that enables assessment of different immunotherapy approaches in paediatric tumour organoids. We provide a step-by-step protocol for an efficient generation of patient-derived diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) and neuroblastoma organoids stably expressing eGFP-ffLuc transgenes using defined serum-free medium. In contrast to the chromium-release assay, the new platform allows for visualization, monitoring and robust quantification of tumour organoid cell cytotoxicity using a non-radioactive assay in real-time. To evaluate the utility of this system for drug testing in the paediatric immuno-oncology field, we tested our in vitro assay using a clinically used immunotherapy strategy for children with high-risk neuroblastoma, dinutuximab (anti-GD2 monoclonal antibody), on GD2 proficient and deficient patient-derived neuroblastoma organoids. We demonstrated the feasibility and sensitivity of our ex vivo coculture system using human immune cells and paediatric tumour organoids as ex vivo tumour models. Our study provides a novel platform for personalized testing of potential anticancer immunotherapies for aggressive paediatric cancers such as neuroblastoma and DIPG.

Automated summary

This study describes a detailed procedure for establishing an ex vivo test coculture system of pediatric tumor organoids and immune cells to evaluate the efficacy of immunotherapies. This new platform allows for real-time visualization, monitoring, and robust quantification of tumor organoid cell cytotoxicity. The feasibility and sensitivity of this ex vivo coculture system using human immune cells and pediatric tumor organoids as ex vivo tumor models have been demonstrated.