Possibilities of gene therapies for cancer

CD81, a cell cycle regulator, is a novel target for histone deacetylase inhibition in glioma cells

Recent advances in cancer cell biology have focused on histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi's) because they target pathways critical to the development and progression of disease. In particular, HDACi's can induce expression of epigenetically silenced genes that promote growth arrest, differentiation and cell death. In glioma cells, one such repressed gene is the tetraspanin CD81, which regulates cytostasis in various cell lines and in astrocytes, the major cellular component of gliomas. Our studies show that HDACi's, trichostatin and sodium butyrate, promote growth arrest and differentiation with negligible cell death in glioma cells and induce expression of CD81 and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1A (p21(CIP/WAF-1)), another regulator of cytostasis in astrocytes. Interference RNA knock-down of CD81 abrogates cytostasis promoted by HDAC inhibition indicating that HDACi-induced CD81 is responsible for growth arrest. Induction of CD81 expression through HDAC inhibition is a novel strategy to promote growth arrest in glioma cells.

Histone deacetylase inhibitors profoundly decrease proliferation of human lymphoid cancer cell lines

Methylation of tumor suppressor genes is frequently observed in human cancers. These genes are silenced by histone deacetylase (HDAC) recruited by methylated DNA in their promoter regions. HDAC removes acetyl groups from histones and prevents the basic transcriptional machinary access to the target gene, leading to transcriptional repression. HDAC inhibitors (HDACIs) can restore the expression of the tumor suppressor and/or cell cycle regulatory genes in cancer cells and block the cellular proliferation of these cells. In this study, we investigated the in vitro antiproliferative activities of the HDACIs, suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA), and valproic acid against 14 human lymphoid cancer cell lines. All of these cell lines were sensitive to the antiproliferative effects of the HDACI. SAHA induced either G1 or G2-M arrest as well as apoptosis. SAHA downregulated cyclin D1 and D2, and upregulated p53, p21, and p27. Chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis revealed a remarkable increase in the level of acetylated histones associated with the p21 promoter after SAHA treatment. In nude mice, SAHA significantly inhibited growth of a mantle cell lymphoma without major toxic side effects. In summary, HDACIs are promising therapeutic agents for human lymphoid cancers.

Gene therapy of single-gene disorders: preface to the special section

Gene therapy was introduced into clinical practice with great excitement, much publicity and considerable optimism in the early 1990s. Scientific evaluation of the early clinical trials has, however, greatly reduced the initial optimism. Follow-up studies have revealed that many early gene therapy trials mainly represented gene transfer into patients, possibly with short-term effects, but not true gene therapy where the course of the disease is permanently affected. This has lead to critical re-evaluation of the approaches taken. Clearly, more basic understanding is needed of the molecular mechanisms of the diseases treated. For this purpose, better animal models for human diseases are necessary. One of the biggest obstacles for gene therapy has been the lack of adequate vector systems. Development of new vectors for efficient and targeted delivery and uptake of therapeutic genes is a crucial area where progress needs to be made. The rationale for gene therapy depends largely on the type of disease to be treated. Recessively inherited single-gene disorders represent diseases where the concept of gene therapy--addition of a therapeutic gene to restore the lost function of two mutant alleles--is easily understood and rarely questioned. However, most gene therapy protocols are focused on multifactorial diseases such as malignancies where the therapeutic approach is quite different. While gene transfer technologies are being developed into truly effective gene therapy, the fight against inherited single-gene disorders also continues at population level by carrier screening and prenatal diagnostics where rapid methodological developments are taking place.