A Neural Tract-Inspired Conduit for Facile, On-Demand Biopsy of Glioblastoma

A major hurdle to effectively treating glioblastoma (GBM) patients is the lack of longitudinal information about tumor progression, evolution, and treatment response. In this study, we report the use of a neural tract-inspired conduit containing aligned polymeric nanofibers (i.e., an aligned nanofiber device) to enable on-demand access to GBM tumors in two rodent models. Depending on the experiment, a humanized U87MG xenograft tumor and/or F98-GFP+ syngeneic rat tumor models were chosen to test the safety and functionality of the device in providing continuous sampling access to the tumor and its microenvironment. The aligned nanofiber device was safe and provided a high quantity of quality genomic materials suitable for omics analyses and yielded a sufficient number of live cells for in vitro expansion and screening. Transcriptomic and genomic analyses demonstrated continuity between material extracted from the device and that of the primary, intracortical tumor (in the in vivo model). The results establish the potential of this neural tract-inspired, aligned nanofiber device as an on-demand, safe, and minimally invasive access point which enables rapid, high-throughput, longitudinal assessment of tumor and its microenvironment, leading to more informed clinical treatment strategies.