1. Innovative Bioluminometric Quantification of Cancer Cell Load in Target Organs: Implications for Studying Anticancer Drugs, Including ROS Enhancers
- Author
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Soumyadeep Sarkar, Jason Z. Li, Michael A. Trush, Zhenquan Jia, Hong Zhu, Y. Robert Li, and Megan E. Kauffman
- Subjects
Drug ,chemistry.chemical_classification ,Reactive oxygen species ,Melanoma ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Cell ,Biology ,medicine.disease ,Article ,Metastasis ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,chemistry ,Cancer cell ,Immunology ,medicine ,Cancer research ,Pharmacology (medical) ,Luciferase ,Enhancer ,media_common - Abstract
Animal models are essential for developing effective drugs for treating human cancer. Examination of the formation of lung surface foci of B16-F10 melanoma cells is a widely used animal model for studying cancer metastasis and drug intervention. This model, however, suffers from several drawbacks, including its non-quantitative nature and inability to yield information on cancer cell load inside the target organ. Here we report the development of a highly sensitive, bioluminescence-based method for quantifying melanoma cell load in mouse lungs following intravenous injection of luciferase-expressing B16-F10 melanoma cells. This method could readily detect as few as 1-10 cells in the samples and enable quantification of cancer cell load before the formation of surface foci in mouse lungs following metastasis of intravenously inoculated B16-F10 melanoma cells. This innovative bioluminometry-based method has important implications for studying anticancer drugs, including naturally occurring redox-active quinones that generate reactive oxygen species to kill cancer cells.
- Published
- 2016