Radiotherapy on-chip: microfluidics for translational radiation oncology

Abstract

The clinical importance of radiotherapy in the treatment of cancer patient justifies the development and use of research tools at the fundamental, pre-clinical, and ultimately clinical levels, to investigate their...

Human Intestinal Organoids and Microphysiological Systems for Modeling Radiotoxicity and Assessing Radioprotective Agents

“…The use of specific probiotics and prebiotics to complement CRC treatment has also been studied in clinical trials, showing evidence of their efficacy on the quality of life of patients experiencing fewer symptoms and lowered inflammatory marker concentrations, such as TNF-α levels [101,102]. Clinical trials recapitulated by Shuwen et al showed that SCFAs, from microbial fermentation, have been used as therapeutic treatment against CRC cells [5]. One positive impact is the exertion of a regulatory influence on the immune response by promoting the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines [103] In 2016, Mansouri-Tehrani et al reported the impact of probiotics alone, coupled with honey, and placebo controlled in 67 patients with pelvic cancer receiving radiotherapy, who were exposed to a total dose between 40 and 50 Gy.…”

“…This enables integrated, automated, parallel, and miniaturized biochemical analyses in a consistent manner [115]. It allows representation of in vitro radiotherapy [5], the co-culture of epithelial cells with bacteria [138,139], the modeling of cancer [140,141], drug discovery with toxicity tests [142], and the study of the barrier function [143].…”

“…The identification of such radioprotective agents is not straightforward since current research does not give a full understanding of their potential. Emerging studies have focused on using microphysiological systems with a radiotherapy setup that models the human cancer microenvironment [5] and that could be used to assess radioprotective candidates. This review explores the use of microphysiological systems in the context of radiotherapy treatment for colorectal cancer and their potential for assessing radioprotective candidates.…”

Brachytherapy on-a-chip: a clinically-relevant approach for radiotherapy testing in 3d biology

“…1B), which have recently been reviewed. 13 For example, microfluidic devices uniquely combine radio-compatible materials, culture of increasingly complex tumour models and assay-multiplexing capabilities. The development of chip-based assays could help power translational radiobiology research just as it has positively impacted drug testing for the past 20 years.…”

Coupling the COST reference plasma jet to a microfluidic device: a new diagnostic tool for plasma-liquid interactions

“…These 3D cell cultures often feature key characteristics of in vivo tissues that conventional 2D cell cultures do not offer, making them a relevant biological model. 3D cell cultures embedded in microfluidic devices have been used as a test platform for different chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy treatments [15][16][17]. As the plasma medicine community is in the pursuit of accurate and well-established biological models to address key questions of plasma oncology, the use of microfluidic devices could offer solutions from plasma-treated liquid characterization all the way to plasma treatment development.…”