Post by ZeClinics

The lack of a functional adaptive immune system at larval stages gives zebrafish a tremendous advantage. They are equivalent to a nude rodent, which means we can generate xenograft tumor models that offer a fast and cost-effective complement to mouse models for CAR-T cell evaluation. Mouse xenograft models, the current gold standard, are expensive, slow, and offer limited imaging access to the tumor-immune cell interface. Pascoal et al. clearly demonstrated the zebrafish's potential. GFP-expressing leukemia cells were injected into the circulation of 48 hours post-fertilization (hpf) zebrafish embryos, followed by CD19-specific CAR-T cells. Within 24 hours, leukemia cell numbers dropped by approximately 70% in treated embryos. (https://lnkd.in/djUauRMb) Several features make this platform particularly useful for iterative CAR design testing: → Experiments run in 96-well format, enabling automated image acquisition and higher-throughput analysis. → Novel CAR designs can be tested directly; compounds dissolved in the surrounding water are absorbed by the embryo. → Only 50–300 tumor cells are needed per xenograft, so a single tumor sample goes a long way. The zebrafish won't replace the mouse. But for early-stage CAR-T design iteration, the case is getting harder to ignore. Do you need help? We have the infrastructure and expertise to generate and characterize zebrafish xenograft models at scale.