Quantification of human Alu sequences by real-time PCR: an improved method to measure therapeutic efficacy of anti-metastatic drugs in human xenotransplants

For measuring the efficacy of new anti-metastatic drugs in preclinical models, macroscopical analysis or classical histology of secondary organs are established methods. However, macroscopical evaluation does not take into consideration intra-organ metastasis. Histological analysis is often performed in few sections of the relevant organs, and this may be misleading, since equal distribution of tumor cells within an organ is unlikely. In addition, recent studies have demonstrated that anti-tumorigenic drugs are able to promote metastasis and to change the metastatic pattern. Therefore, extensive analysis of metastasis is mandatory for the evaluation of new compounds. A feasibility study was conducted to find out if the quantification of human Alu sequences could be applied as a surrogate marker for metastasis in xenografts. Alu PCR was performed by using the LightCycler® system,* which allows PCR reaction and subsequent quantification of the PCR products in less than 30 min. We found that i) the equivalent of one human tumor cell in 1 × 106 murine cells could be detected; ii) in tumor-carrying mice, Alu signal increased over time in secondary organs; iii) this increase was more prominent using highly metastatic tumor cells; iv) Alu signal intensity in DNA extracted from tissue slides correlated with the expression of histological tumor markers; v) in three different tumor models (colon, breast and lung), treatment with Taxol or 5-fluorouracil reduced the amount of Alu in different organs. In contrast, reduction of Alu by the matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor RO 28-2653 was not significant. Taken together, quantification of Alu sequences is a fast and accurate method to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of anti-metastatic drugs in xenografts.