Chicken egg CAM studied as a rapid screening tool of the anti-tumor efficacy of CAR T cells in vivo
Nipper AJ, Warren EAK, Kershena SL, et al. Chick Embryo Chorioallantoic Membrane as a Platform for Assessing the In Vivo Efficacy of Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell Therapy in Solid Tumors. ImmunoHorizons. 2024; 8 (8): 598 (doi: 10.4049/immunohorizons.2400059).
Researchers have identified a promising new platform for preclinical testing of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell efficacy against solid tumors. In the pursuit of an alternative to murine xenograft models, which are time- and cost-intensive and challenged by scalability limitations, the fertilized chicken egg chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) emerged as a candidate. Chick CAM nourishes the developing embryo with its highly vascularized membrane but also supports three-dimensional vascularized tumors from engrafted cells and tumor explants. To gauge the viability of CAM modeling, investigators observed human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-expressing tumors grown on the CAM. Three days after engraftment, the tumors were treated with HER2-specific CAR T cells, which effectively reduced viable cancer cells. The engrafted cells were harvested after about 1 week, with CD3 staining revealing CAR T persistence in CAM and tumor tissue. With the model demonstrating the ability of HER2-specific CAR T cells to persist in CAM tissue, traffic to tumors, and eradicate cancer cells grown on the CAM — all within about 7 days — researchers believe their findings justify further development of chick CAM as an in vivo system for rapid evaluation of CAR T anti-tumor efficacy against human solid tumors.