FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS SCREENING PLATFORM FOR HEAD AND NECK CANCER

摘要

The present invention relates to HPV-positive as well as HPV-negative screening platforms that are highly serum-dependent, for use as HNSCC models. These HNSCC models die reproducibly in serum-deprived conditions and the introduction of driver mutations (or increased levels of the WT gene) confers enhanced cell survival and proliferation under serum deprivation. These platforms have the major advantages of allowing functional screening of mutations in relevant HNSCC models (HPV-positive and HPV-negative). In addition to oncogene screening, this model can also be used in drug discovery. Specifically, cells expressing mutations that confer increased survival can then be screened against panels of therapeutic agents to determine if the mutation(s) can predict the optimal treatment for patients whose tumors harbor the mutation(s).

主权项

1. A method of identifying a driver gene or mutation in a cancer comprising inserting a putative driver gene/mutation into a cell of a serum dependent tumor cell line and then determining the ability of the cell containing the putative driver gene/mutation to grow under low serum conditions, where if the cell is able to grow at an improved rate and/or exhibit improved survival under low serum conditions relative to a cell of the serum dependent tumor cell line lacking the putative driver gene/mutation indicates that the putative driver gene/mutation is a driver gene/mutation.