The Zebrafish Xenograft Models for Investigating Cancer and Cancer Therapeutics

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The identification and development of new anti-cancer drugs requires extensive testing in animal models to establish safety and efficacy of drug candidates. The transplantation of human tumor tissue into mouse (tumor xenografts) is commonly used to study cancer progression and to test potential drugs for their anti-cancer activity. Mouse models do not afford the ability to test a large number of drug candidates quickly as it takes several weeks to conduct these experiments. In contrast, tumor xenograft studies in zebrafish provide an efficient platform for rapid testing of safety and efficacy in less than two weeks. ABSTRACT: In order to develop new cancer therapeutics, rapid, reliable, and relevant biological models are required to screen and validate drug candidates for both efficacy and safety. In recent years, the zebrafish (Danio rerio) has emerged as an excellent model organism suited for these goals. Larval fish or immunocompromised adult fish are used to engraft human cancer cells and serve as a platform for screening potential drug candidates. With zebrafish sharing ~80% of disease-related orthologous genes with humans, they provide a low cost, high-throughput alternative to mouse xenografts that is relevant to human biology. In this review, we provide background on the methods and utility of zebrafish xenograft models in cancer research.