Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Department of Internal Medicine, Rogel Cancer Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Cancer Res. 2020 Sep 15;80(18):3786-3794. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-20-0079. Epub 2020 May 14.
Cancer metastasis poses a challenging problem both clinically and scientifically, as the stochastic nature of metastatic lesion formation introduces complexity for both early detection and the study of metastasis in preclinical models. Engineered metastatic niches represent an emerging approach to address this stochasticity by creating bioengineered sites where cancer can preferentially metastasize. As the engineered niche captures the earliest metastatic cells at a nonvital location, both noninvasive and biopsy-based monitoring of these sites can be performed routinely to detect metastasis early and monitor alterations in the forming metastatic niche. The engineered metastatic niche also provides a new platform technology that serves as a tunable site to molecularly dissect metastatic disease mechanisms. Ultimately, linking the engineered niches with advances in sensor development and synthetic biology can provide enabling tools for preclinical cancer models and fosters the potential to impact the future of clinical cancer care.
癌症转移在临床上和科学上都是一个具有挑战性的问题，因为转移病变形成的随机性给早期检测和临床前模型中的转移研究带来了复杂性。工程化的转移龛是一种新兴的方法，可以通过创建生物工程化的部位来解决这种随机性，使癌症可以优先转移到这些部位。由于工程化的龛在非关键位置捕获最早的转移细胞，因此可以对这些部位进行非侵入性和基于活检的常规监测，以早期发现转移并监测形成中的转移龛的变化。工程化的转移龛还提供了一种新的平台技术，作为一个可调谐的部位，可以从分子水平上剖析转移疾病的机制。最终，将工程化的龛与传感器开发和合成生物学的进步相结合，可以为临床前癌症模型提供有效的工具，并有可能影响未来的临床癌症治疗。
