The IL6Myc mouse Is an immunocompetent model of aggressive human Multiple Myeloma which recapitulates key disease characteristics

Multiple Myeloma (MM) is a disease of malignant mature B cells, also known as plasma cells, and is the second most common blood cancer in the United States. While great advancements have been made to cure the disease, nearly all patients eventually relapse. For this reason, there is an urgent need for models of MM. One important way to model disease is mouse modeling. For this reason, the Janz laboratory developed the IL6Myc mouse. The IL6Myc mouse develops MM-like disease, due to the presence of oncogenes IL6 and Myc, in 100% of the mice and mimics disease characteristics. While we know that these mice get MM, it is unknown to what degree the mice resemble human MM on the DNA, RNA and protein levels. Additionally, it is unknown how the tumor microenvironment (the cells and proteins surrounding the tumor) model disease. For this reason, I undertook comprehensive genomic analysis to analyze DNA sequence, and expression levels of protein and RNA to determine how well the IL6Myc mouse models human MM. From this work we found key evidence that IL6Myc mice develop disease resembling aggressive human MM. Additionally, we derived cell lines from the mice which serve as a model of disease that can be made in a dish. In addition to this work, we examined the tumor microenvironment of the mice and determined that IL6Myc mice develop bone disease similar to what is seen in the clinic and have immune cells that are activated to fight MM.