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Model Organisms in Drug Discovery

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272 SATURATION SCREENING OF DRUGGABLE MAMMALIAN GENOME<br />

Level 2 oncology tests<br />

Targets identified from Level 1 are characterized further for their potential<br />

role <strong>in</strong> human tumorigenesis. Focus is placed on targets that are highly<br />

expressed <strong>in</strong> human tumor cell l<strong>in</strong>es and capable of driv<strong>in</strong>g the tumor<br />

phenotype as demonstrated by gene knock-down studies or overexpressiondriven<br />

tumorigenesis models <strong>in</strong> nude mice.<br />

Quantitative polymerase cha<strong>in</strong> reaction for analysis<br />

of expression <strong>in</strong> cancerous and normal cell l<strong>in</strong>es and tissues<br />

Quantitative polymerase cha<strong>in</strong> reaction of candidate genes is done us<strong>in</strong>g<br />

cDNA prepared from 66 cancer and n<strong>in</strong>e normal cell l<strong>in</strong>es from ATCC,<br />

seven primary cell stra<strong>in</strong>s from Clonetics, about three cancer l<strong>in</strong>es and<br />

matched adjacent normal tissue controls from Ambion, MCF-7 breast cancer<br />

cells +/ 17b-estradiol and LNCaP prostate cancer cells +/ dihydrotestosterone.<br />

This is done to identify targets that are overexpressed <strong>in</strong> cancerous cell<br />

l<strong>in</strong>es relative to normal cell and tissue controls.<br />

Gene knock-down studies with short <strong>in</strong>terfer<strong>in</strong>g RNA<br />

Cancer cell l<strong>in</strong>es determ<strong>in</strong>ed to be overexpress<strong>in</strong>g a target of <strong>in</strong>terest are cotransfected<br />

with 3–6 short hairp<strong>in</strong> RNA vectors and blasticid<strong>in</strong> resistance<br />

vectors or synthetic short <strong>in</strong>terfer<strong>in</strong>g RNAs to knock down the expression of<br />

specific targets. Assessment is made of the effects of RNA <strong>in</strong>terference on<br />

<strong>in</strong> vitro proliferation, anchorage-dependent and anchorage-<strong>in</strong>dependent<br />

colony formation and the ability of cell l<strong>in</strong>es to form tumors <strong>in</strong> nude mice.<br />

Overexpression studies for putative oncogenes<br />

Potential oncology targets are tested to determ<strong>in</strong>e whether they can drive<br />

tumor formation. Full-length genes of <strong>in</strong>terest are cloned <strong>in</strong>to a mammalian<br />

expression vector and co-transfected <strong>in</strong>to NIH3T3 and RK3E cells with a<br />

blasticid<strong>in</strong>-resistance vector. The result<strong>in</strong>g blasticid<strong>in</strong>-resistant polyclonal<br />

pools are tested <strong>in</strong> vitro for acquisition of anchorage <strong>in</strong>dependence, reduced<br />

serum dependence and <strong>in</strong>creased focus-form<strong>in</strong>g ability. Stably transfected cell<br />

l<strong>in</strong>es express<strong>in</strong>g exogenous cDNAs of <strong>in</strong>terest are then analyzed for their<br />

ability to form tumors <strong>in</strong> athymic nude mice.

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