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Abstract Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common primary malignant brain cancer in adults, with a dismal prognosis of 15 months. This is despite decades of research and improvements in surgery and radiotherapy. Temozolomide (TMZ) is the only first-in-line chemotherapeutic; however, resistance is frequent and multifactorial. While many molecular and genetic factors have been linked to TMZ resistance, the role of the solid tumor morphology and the tumor microenvironment (TME), particularly the blood-brain barrier (BBB), is unknown. Complex 3D in vitro models are able to recapitulate aspects of clinical disease such as the tumor microenvironment, such that research into the role of the TME and how it affects tumor biology and therapy resistance can be studied more easily and accurately. We have developed a complex 3D in vitro model for GBM and its surrounding BBB, that recapitulates important clinical features such as a dense tumor core with tumor cells that invade along the perivascular space; and a perfusable BBB with a physiological permeability with morphology that is altered in the presence of a tumor spheroid. We demonstrate that TMZ sensitivity decreases with increasing cancer cell spatial organization, and that the BBB can contribute to TMZ resistance. Proteomic analysis of cultured microtissues using low volume sample workflows revealed proteins linked to aggressive tumors and TMZ resistance. Notably, proteomic analysis revealed a potential role for cell cycle proteins in TMZ resistance. Preliminary data with tumor spheroids formed by patient derived GBM progenitor cells revealed a similar trend of an increase in proteins associated with tumor aggressiveness upon co-culture with a BBB. The data demonstrate the utility of combining complex physiological in vitro models and next generation mass spectrometry for interrogating the tumour microenvironment, tumor biology and accurate in vitro therapy validation. Citation Format: Maxine SY Lam, Joey JY Aw, Damien Tan, Ragavi Vijayakumar, Hui Yi Grace Lim, Swathi Yada, Qing You Pang, Nick Barker, Carol Tang, Beng Ti Ang, Radoslaw M. Sobota, Andrea Pavesi. Unveiling the Influence of Tumor Microenvironment and Spatial Heterogeneity on Temozolomide Resistance in Glioblastoma using an Advanced Human in vitro Model of the Blood-brain Barrier and Glioblastoma abstract. In: Proceedings of Frontiers in Cancer Science; 2023 Nov 6-8; Singapore. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84 (8Suppl): Abstract nr P20.
Lam et al. (Mon,) studied this question.