PATH-30. EXOSOMES AS A SOURCE OF PLASMA ctDNA TO IDENTIFY POINT MUTATIONS IN PEDIATRIC GLIOMA PATIENTS

Surgery consists in the mainstay of treatment in most gliomas, but in many cases, a resection is not feasible. Liquid biopsy is an ideal tool providing a minimally invasive method through plasma or CSF sampling to assess cell-free tumor DNA (ctDNA). Here we explore the feasibility of detecting DNA in plasma exosomes (exoDNA) extracted from glioma patients and further investigate its use in identifying molecular alterations. Exosomes were isolated from 2ml of plasma from 24 patients (13 LGG, 8 HGG, 3 DIPG) and fully characterized by nanoparticle tracking analysis and transmission electron microscopy. DNA was extracted from 13 samples (exoDNA) so far. Five patients had confirmed point mutations in the primary tumor (3BRAFV600E; 1FGFR1N546K; 1H3.3), additionally, 3 samples were collected from clinically diagnosed DIPG patients to inquire H3K27M mutations. DNA was extracted successfully from all exosome samples; a pre-amplification step was needed and direct sequencing was carried out for BRAFV600E. FGFR1N546K and H3K27M mutations were sought in patients with positive tumors. Wildtype BRAF fragment was identified in 12/13samples (1 patient failed sequencing). However, none of the five tumor positive patients nor the DIPG patients had mutations detected at the exo-DNA level. There is growing evidence that CSF may be the ideal source of ctDNA in brain tumor patients, therefore although we could not detect mutations in plasma DNA we are currently analyzing CSF exoDNA and cell-free DNA to evaluate if this proves a successful strategy and weather exoDNA is more representative of the tumor content.