Researchers discover links between human and canine brain tumors

Researchers at Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (VMBS), Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital have discovered that meningiomas, the most common type of brain tumor in humans and dogs, are extremely similar genetically.

These newly discovered similarities will allow doctors to use a classification system that identifies aggressive tumors in humans and dogs while opening the door to exciting new collaborations between human and animal medicine.

Until now, the lack of reliable and viable experimental models has been an obstacle to understanding the biology and developing effective treatments for these brain tumors.

“The discovery that natural canine tumors closely resemble their human counterparts opens many avenues for exploring the biology of these challenging tumors,” said Dr. Akash Patel, associate professor of neurosurgery at Baylor College of Medicine and principal investigator at Jan and Dan. Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) at Texas Children’s Hospital.

“It also provides opportunities to develop and study new treatments applicable to both humans and dogs.”

The study, published in Neuropathological acta, was led by Patel; Dr. Jonathan Levine, professor at VMBS and head of the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences (VSCS); and Dr. Tiemo Klisch, assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine and principal investigator at Duncan NRI. VSCS Assistant Professor Dr. Beth Boudreau was a key collaborator.

For the project, the team analyzed 62 canine meningiomas from 27 dog breeds and found that the tumors shared remarkable similarities with the same types of tumors when they occur in humans. This is the largest study to date of the gene expression profiles of canine meningiomas.

Watch the signs

The new discovery was made possible by recent work by Patel’s team, as well as previous work by Levine and Boudreau that explored gliomas, another type of brain tumor.

In 2019, Patel and others from Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital found that they could classify meningiomas in humans into three biologically distinct subtypes – MenG A, B and C – by analyzing their RNA . The new classification system can predict patient outcomes with greater accuracy than standard analysis of tissue samples.

“Because RNA shows how a tumor’s genes turn on, it allows researchers to accurately predict how a tumor will behave, whether it will be aggressive or respond to certain therapies,” Levine said.

In 2020, Levine, Boudreau and colleagues at VMBS and the Jackson Laboratory for Genetic Medicine discovered genetic similarities between gliomas – the second most common type of brain tumor – in humans and dogs.

Armed with a new way to detect aggressive tumors and knowing that dogs and humans share some brain tumor traits, Patel contacted Levine about applying the findings to the study of meningiomas.

“We ended up agreeing to provide Patel with samples of canine tumors that we had worked for years and years to archive, to see if he could isolate the RNA, which is not always easy to do,” Levine said. “He was able to produce this very robust data set that had a similar structure to human tumors. Our team also provided Dr. Patel with key clinical outcome data, including responses to certain treatments.

Moving to clinical trials

Now that researchers have established a link between the tumors of the two species, they can begin preparations for clinical trials, which can take several years to plan and fund.

“We really want to create wins for human and animal medicine,” Levine said. “For example, we hope to give dog owners access to a therapy that is not available anywhere else in the world through clinical trials. At the same time, this information will also inform the next stage of animal testing. ‘man.”

Separately, a separate group of researchers at the University of California, Davis, conducted a similar study with consistent findings on meningiomas in dogs and humans and published their work in the same journal. Both research groups look forward to collaborating in the future to develop treatments for tumors of both species.

“I think there is a tremendous opportunity for teams at Baylor, Texas A&M, Texas Children’s and the University of California to collaborate to create a clinical trial,” Levine said.

“If we do a single trial, we would be able to recruit patients much more quickly, which would make it easier to obtain larger data sets, which would lead to more robust results. So we are very interested in doing of a collaborative essay.” he said. “We definitely view the California team as a potential partner.”

For now, the next step is to examine the data from both studies to see if there are any clues that will lead to new therapies.

“One of the benefits of this project is that we already have all this genetic data that we can use to decide what might be a good treatment,” Levine said. “The first part prepared us very well to work on the second part.”