Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neurotoxicity in immune-deficient mice: New useful ready-to-use animal models

• Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy is now characterized in athymic nude mice.
• Differences are evident if compared with conventional mice models.
• The combined study of antineoplastic and neurotoxic effects in the same animal is grounded.

Cisplatin, paclitaxel and bortezomib are effective chemotherapy drugs in cancer treatment. However, they share severe peripheral neurotoxicity (PN) as one of their major dose-limiting side effects, often impairing cancer patients' quality of life and sometimes being permanent. Even if preclinical oncology is largely based on the use of immune-deficient mice, rodent models used to study the chemotherapy-induced PN are available only in immune-competent animals. In this study we characterized for the first time the PN induced by these chemotherapies through neurophysiological, behavioral, morphological and morphometric studies in athymic nude mice, a commonly employed strain in the preclinical oncology. The animals, divided into four groups, were chronically treated with cisplatin, paclitaxel or bortezomib once or twice a week for 4 or 6 weeks or were left untreated. These schedules were tolerated, neurotoxic and in the range of antineoplastic effectiveness. Despite similarities, differences in the features of PN were evident if compared with immune-competent models under comparable regimens of treatment. The results of this study may provide a basis for future combined analysis of antineoplastic and neurotoxic effects of chemotherapy in the same animals.