Replacement and Suicide Gene Therapy for Targeted Treatment of Lung Cancer

The (re)emergence of aerosol delivery: Treatment of pulmonary diseases and its clinical challenges

Aerosol delivery represents a rapid and non-invasive way to directly reach the lungs while escaping the hepatic first-pass effect. The development of pulmonary drugs for respiratory diseases such as cystic fibrosis, lung infections, pulmonary fibrosis or lung cancer requires an enhanced understanding of the relationships between the natural physiology of the respiratory system and the pathophysiology of these conditions. This knowledge is crucial to better predict and thereby control drug deposition. Moreover, aerosol administration faces several challenges, including the pulmonary tract, immune system, mucociliary clearance, the presence of fluid on the airway surfaces, and, in some cases, bacterial colonisation. Each of them directly influences on the bioavailability of the active molecule. In addition to these challenges, particle size and the device used to administer the treatment are critical factors that can significantly impact the biodistribution of the drugs. Nanoparticles are very promising in the development of new formulations for aerosol drug delivery, as they can be fine-tuned to reach the entire pulmonary tract and overcome the difficulties encountered along the way. However, to properly assess drug delivery, preclinical studies need to be more thorough to efficiently enhance drug delivery.

Dual peptides-modified cationic liposomes for enhanced Lung cancer gene therapy by a gap junction regulating strategy

BACKGROUND

Gene therapy for lung cancer has emerged as a novel tumor-combating strategy for its superior tumor specificity, low systematical toxicity and huge clinical translation potential. Especially, the applications of microRNA shed led on effective tumor ablation by directly interfering with the crucial gene expression, making it one of the most promising gene therapy agents. However, for lung cancer therapy, the microRNA treatment confronted three bottlenecks, the poor tumor tissue penetration effect, the insufficient lung drug accumulation and unsatisfied gene transfection efficiency. To address these issues, an inhalable RGD-TAT dual peptides-modified cationic liposomes loaded with microRNA miR-34a and gap junction (GJ) regulation agent all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) was proposed, which was further engineered into dry powder inhalers (DPIs).

RESULTS

Equipped with a rough particle surface and appropriate aerodynamic size, the proposed RGD-TAT-CLPs/ARTA@miR-34a DPIs were expected to deposit into the deep lung and reach lung tumor lesions guided by targeting peptide RGD. Assisted by cellular transmembrane peptides TAT, the RGD-TAT-CLPs/ARTA@miR-34a was proven to be effectively internalized by cancer cells, enhancing gene transfection efficiency. Then, the GJ between tumor cells was upregulated by ARTA, facilitating the intercellular transport of miR-34a and boosting the gene expression in the deep tumor.

CONCLUSION

Overall, the proposed RGD-TAT-CLPs/ARTA@miR-34a DPIs could enhance tumor tissue penetration, elevate lung drug accumulation and boost gene transfection efficiency, breaking the three bottlenecks to enhancing tumor elimination in vitro and in vivo. We believe that the proposed RGD-TAT-CLPs/ARTA@miR-34a DPIs could serve as a promising pulmonary gene delivery platform for multiple lung local disease treatments.

Enhancement of Tumor Cell Death by Combining gef Gene Mediated Therapy and New 1,4-Benzoxazepin-2,6-Dichloropurine Derivatives in Breast Cancer Cells

New treatment modalities are urgently needed to better manage advanced breast cancer. Combination therapies are usually more effective than monotherapy. In this context, the use of cyclic and acyclic O,N-acetals derivative compounds in combination with the suicide gef gene shown a potent anti-tumor activity and represent a new generation of anticancer agents. Here, we evaluate the use of the gef gene to promote and increase the anti-tumor effect of cyclic and acyclic O,N-acetals purine derivatives and elucidate their mechanisms of action. Among all compounds tested, those with a nitro group and a cyclic pattern structures (FC-30b2, FC-29c, and bozepinib) are the most benefited from the gef gene effect. These compounds, in combination with gef gene, were able to abolish tumor cell proliferation with a minimal dose leading to more effective and less toxic chemotherapy. The effect of this combined therapy is triggered by apoptosis induction which can be found deregulated in the later stage of breast cancer. Moreover, the combined therapy leads to an increase of cell post-apoptotic secondary necrosis that is able to promote the immunogenicity of cancer cells leading to a successful treatment. This data suggests that this novel combination therapy represents a promising candidate for breast cancer treatment.

Lung cancer gene therapy: Transferrin and hyaluronic acid dual ligand-decorated novel lipid carriers for targeted gene delivery

To achieve lung cancer gene therapy, nanocarriers decorated with different ligands were used. Surface decoration and nanoparticulate system will assist in targeting the gene to specific cells and tissues, such as cancers and diseased organs. The aim of this research was to develop a dual ligand-decorated nanocarriers, which could target the tumor cells through receptor-mediated pathways to increase the uptake of genetic materials. Transferrin (Tf) and hyaluronic (HA) containing polyethylene glycol-distearoylphosphatidylethanolamine (Tf-PEG-DSPE and HA-PEG-DSPE) ligands were synthesized. Novel Tf and HA ligand-decorated, plasmid-enhanced green fluorescent protein loaded nanostructured lipid carriers (Tf/HA-pDNA NLC) was constructed. Physicochemical properties such as morphology, size, and ζ-potential as well as release properties were evaluated. The in vitro and in vivo gene transfection efficiency of Tf/HA-pDNA NLC was evaluated in lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells and lung cancer bearing animal models. Tf/HA-pDNA NLC displayed significantly higher transfection efficiency than undecorated DNA-NLCs and single ligand-decorated NLCs in vitro and in vivo. The newly constructed NLCs could successfully load gene; and Tf and HA functioned as excellent targeting ligands to improve the cell targeting ability of the gene-loaded nanocarriers. The resulting dual ligands decorated vectors could be a promising targeted gene delivery system for the lung cancer treatment.

Study of the combined treatment of lung cancer using gene-loaded immunomagnetic albumin nanospheres in vitro and in vivo

Combination therapy for lung cancer has garnered widespread attention. Radiation therapy, gene therapy, and molecular targeted therapy for lung cancer have certain effects, but the disadvantages of these treatment methods are evident. Combining these methods can decrease their side effects and increase their curative effects. In this study, we constructed a pYr-ads-8-5HRE-cfosp-iNOS-IFNG plasmid (a gene circuit that can express IFNγ), which is a gene circuit, and used that plasmid together with C225 (cetuximab) to prepare gene-loaded immunomagnetic albumin nanospheres (IMANS). Moreover, we investigated the therapeutic effects of gene-loaded IMANS in combination with radiation therapy on human lung cancer in vitro and in vivo. The results showed that this gene circuit was successively constructed and confirmed that the expression of INFγ was increased due to the gene circuit. Gene-loaded IMANS combined with radiation therapy demonstrated improved results in vitro and in vivo. In conclusion, gene-loaded IMANS enhanced the efficacy of combination therapy, solved problems related to gene transfer, and specifically targeted lung cancer cells.

Selective and augmented β-glucuronidase expression combined with DOX-GA3 application elicits the potent suppression of prostate cancer

The present study was carried out to evaluate the specific and amplified β-glucuronidase (βG) expression in prostate cancer cells by using a prostate‑specific antigen (PSA) promoter-controlled bicistronic adenovirus and to evaluate the specific killing of prostate cancer cells after the application of the prodrug DOX‑GA3. Bicistronic adenoviral expression vectors were constructed, and the effectiveness of specific and amplified expression was evaluated using luciferase and EGFP as reporter genes. βG expression was detected in LNCaP cells after they were infected with the βG‑expressing PSA promoter-controlled bicistronic adenovirus. MTT assays were conducted to evaluate the cytoxicity on the infected cells after the application of the prodrug DOX‑GA3. Tumor growth inhibition was also evaluated in nude mice after treatment with the βG‑expressing adenovirus and DOX‑GA3. Selective and amplified expression was observed in the PSA-producing LNCaP cells, but not in the PSA‑non‑producing DU145 cells. Potent cytotoxity and a strong bystander effect were observed in the LNCaP cells after infection with the βG‑expressing adenovirus and the application of DOX‑GA3. Intravenous injection of a GAL4 regulated bicistronic adenovirus vector constructed to express βG under the control of the PSA promoter (Ad/PSAP‑GV16‑βG) and the application of DOX‑GA3 strongly inhibited tumor growth and prolonged the survival time of tumor‑bearing nude mice. Selective and amplified βG expression together with the prodrug DOX‑GA3 had an increased antitumor effect, showing great potential for prostate cancer therapy.

Mst1 overexpression inhibited the growth of human non-small cell lung cancer in vitro and in vivo

Mammalian STE20-like kinase 1 (Mst1) ubiquitously encodes serine threonine kinase, which is a 59-kDa class II GC kinase that shares 76% identity in amino-acid sequence with MST2, and is the closest mammalian homolog of Drosophila Hippo protein kinase, a major inhibitor of cell proliferation in Drosophila. Recent studies have shown that Mst1 and Mst2 perform tumor-suppressor function in a redundant manner and were originally identified as pro-apoptotic cytoplasmic kinases important for controlling cell growth, proliferation, apoptosis and organ size. We used recombinant eukaryotic expression vector containing human wild-type Mst1 gene to transfect human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) A549 cells in vitro and in vivo. The results showed that Mst1 overexpression inhibited cell proliferation and induced apoptosis of A549 cells, promoted Yes-associated protein (YAP) (Ser127) phosphorylation and downregulated the transcriptional level of Cystein-rich protein connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), amphiregulin (AREG) and Survivin. In human NSCLC-cell-A549-xenograft models, Mst1 gene or cisplatin alone suppressed the growth of tumors and increased the cytoplasm-positive expression levels of YAP and Phospho-YAP (Ser127) proteins; however, their combination had the strongest anticancer effects. Overall, Mst1 has an important role in inhibiting the growth of NSCLC in vitro and in vivo; its antiproliferative effect is associated with induction of apoptosis through promotion of the cytoplasmic localization and phosphorylation of YAP protein at Ser127 site, indicating that Mst1 may be developed as a promising therapeutic target for NSCLC.

Effect of Mst1 overexpression on the growth of human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cells and the sensitivity to cisplatin in vitro

Mammalian STE20-like kinase 1 (Mst1) is the mammalian homologue of Drosophila Hippo, a major inhibitor of cell proliferation in Drosophila. It ubiquitously encodes serine threonine kinase that belongs to the family of protein kinases related to yeast STE20, and is involved in cell proliferation, apoptosis, oncogenesis, and organ growth. Recent studies have shown that Mst1 has tumor-suppressor function, and the deletion or mutation of Mst1 is reported to be associated with tumorigenesis. To investigate the effect of overexpression of Mst1 on the growth of human liver cancer cell line HepG2 cells and the sensitivity to cisplatin in vitro, here we constructed recombinant eukaryotic expression vector pEGFP-N1-Mst1 containing Mst1 gene, and transiently transfected into HepG2 cells. The effects of Mst1 overexpression on the cell proliferation and apoptosis, the phosphorylation status of Yes-associated protein, and the mRNA transcript levels of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), amphiregulin (AREG), and birc5 (Survivin) were determined. Results showed that overexpression of Mst1 inhibited cell proliferation, induced apoptosis of HepG2 cells, promoted YAP (Ser127) phosphorylation, and downregulated the mRNA expression of CTGF, AREG, and Survivin. We also investigated the relationship between the expression and cleavage of Mst1 and cisplatin-induced cell death. We found that Mst1 overexpression could induce cisplatin chemosensitivity, and cisplatin could promote the cleavage of Mst1 without affecting the expression of Mst1. Overall, our results indicated that Mst1 might be a promising anticancer target.

Single agent- and combination treatment with two targeted suicide gene therapy systems is effective in chemoresistant small cell lung cancer cells

BACKGROUND

Transcriptional targeted suicide gene (SG) therapy driven by the insulinoma-associated 1 (INSM1) promoter makes it possible to target suicide toxin production and cytotoxicity exclusively to small cell lung cancer (SCLC) cells and tumors. It remains to be determined whether acquired chemoresistance, as observed in the majority of SCLC patients, desensitizes SCLC cells to INSM1 promoter-driven SG therapy.

METHODS

A panel of SCLC cell lines resistant to clinically relevant chemotherapeutics was characterized regarding the expression of proteins involved in response to chemotherapy and regarding INSM1 promoter activity. Sensitivity towards INSM1 promoter-driven SG therapy was tested using different systems: Yeast cytosine deaminase-uracil phosphoribosyl transferase (YCD-YUPRT) in combination with the prodrug 5-fluorocytosine (5-FC) or Escherichia coli nitroreductase (NTR) together with the bromomustard prodrug SN27686.

RESULTS

The chemoresistant cell lines displayed heterogeneous expression profiles of molecules involved in multidrug resistance, apoptosis and survival pathways. Despite this, the INSM1 promoter activity was found to be unchanged or increased in SCLC chemoresistant cells and xenografts compared to chemosensitive variants. INSM1 promoter-driven SG therapy with YCD-YUPRT/5-FC or NTR/SN27686, was found to induce high levels of cytotoxicity in both chemosensitive and chemoresistant SCLC cells. Moreover, the combination of INSM1 promoter-driven YCD-YUPRT/5-FC therapy and chemotherapy, as well as the combination of INSM1 promoter-driven YCD-YUPRT/5-FC and NTR/SN27686 therapy, was observed to be superior to single agent therapy in chemoresistant SCLC cells.

CONCLUSIONS

Collectively, the present study demonstrates that targeted SG therapy is a potent therapeutic approach for chemoresistant SCLC patients, with the highest efficacy achieved when applied as combination SG therapy or in combination with standard chemotherapy.

Gef gene therapy enhances the therapeutic efficacy of cytotoxics in colon cancer cells

The potential use of gene therapy to improve the response of patients with advanced cancer is being intensively analyzed. We evaluated the cytotoxic impact of the gef gene, a suicide gene, which has a demonstrated antiproliferative activity in tumor cells, in colon carcinoma cells in order to improve the antitumour effect of chemotherapeutic drugs used as first line treatment in the management of advanced colon cancer. We found that the gef gene induced a marked decrease in cell viability (50% in 24h) in T-84 cells through cell death by apoptosis. Interestingly, when gef gene expression was combined with drugs of choice in the clinical treatment of colon cancer (5-fluorouracil, oxaliplatin and irinotecan), a strong synergistic effect was observed with approximately a 15-20% enhancement of the antiproliferative effect. Our data demonstrate, for the first time, that gef gene expression induces significant growth arrest in colon cancer cells and that it is able to enhance the effect of some cytotoxic drugs compared with a single therapeutic approach. These results indicate the potential therapeutic value of the gef gene in colon cancer combination therapy.

Caveolin-1 knockdown is associated with the metastasis and proliferation of human lung cancer cell line NCI-H460

Caveolin-1 (CAV-1), one component of caveolae, involves in multiple cellular processes and signal transductions. We previously showed that the expression of CAV-1 gene in NCI-H446 cells inhibited cell proliferation and promoted cell metastasis. Here we explore the function of CAV-1 on tumor growth and metastasis by using NCI-H460 in vitro. First, we established NCI-H460 cell line, which CAV-1 was stably knockdown. Then we investigated the effects of CAV-1 on the morphology, proliferation, cell cycle and metastasis potential for NCI-H460 cell by crystal violet stains, CCK-8, colony formation, flow cytometry, scratch-wound assay and transwell assay. Western blot was used to examine the expression changes of cyclin D1, PCNA, E-cadherin and β-catenin. Our results showed stable knockdown of CAV-1 inhibited the proliferation of NCI-H460 cells. Cell cycle of the transfected cells was arrested in G1/S phase and the expressions of cyclin D1 and PCNA protein were downregulated. Downregulation of CAV-1 promoted the migration and invasion abilities of NCI-H460 cells in vitro. The expression of β-catenin increased and the level of E-cadherin decreased. In summary, our findings provide experimental evidence that CAV-1 may function as a proproliferative and antimetastatic gene in NCI-H460 cell line.

Gef gene therapy enhances the therapeutic efficacy of doxorubicin to combat growth of MCF-7 breast cancer cells

PURPOSE

The potential use of combined therapy is under intensive study including the association between classical cytotoxic and genes encoding toxic proteins which enhanced the antitumour activity. The main aim of this work was to evaluate whether the gef gene, a suicide gene which has a demonstrated antiproliferative activity in tumour cells, improved the antitumour effect of chemotherapeutic drugs used as first-line treatment in the management of advanced breast cancer.

METHODS

MCF-7 human breast cancer cells were transfected with gef gene using pcDNA3.1-TOPO expression vector. To determine the effect of the combined therapy, MCF-7 transfected and non-transfected cells were exposed to paclitaxel, docetaxel and doxorubicin at different concentrations. The growth-inhibitory effect of gef gene and/or drugs was assessed by MTT assay. Apoptosis modulation was determined by flow cytometric analysis, DNA fragmentation and morphological analysis. Multicellular tumour spheroids (MTS) from MCF-7 cells were used to confirm effectiveness of combined therapy (gef gene and drug).

RESULTS

Our results demonstrate that combined therapy gef gene/drugs (paclitaxel, docetaxel or doxurubicin) caused a decrease in cell viability. However, only the gef-doxorubicin (10 microM) combination induced a greater enhancement in the antitumour activity in MCF-7 cells. Most importantly, this combined strategy resulted in a significant synergistic effect, thus allowing lower doses of the drug to be used to achieve the same therapeutic effect. These results were confirmed using MTS in which volume decrease with combined therapy was greater than obtained using the gene therapy or chemotherapy alone, or the sum of both therapies.

CONCLUSIONS

The cytotoxic effect of gef gene in breast cancer cells enhances the chemotherapeutic effect of doxorubicin. This therapeutic approach has the potential to overcome some of the major limitations of conventional chemotherapy, and may therefore constitute a promising strategy for future applications in breast cancer therapy.

Pro-neural transcription factors as cancer markers

BACKGROUND

The aberrant transcription in cancer of genes normally associated with embryonic tissue differentiation at various organ sites may be a hallmark of tumour progression. For example, neuroendocrine differentiation is found more commonly in cancers destined to progress, including prostate and lung. We sought to identify proteins which are involved in neuroendocrine differentiation and differentially expressed in aggressive/metastatic tumours.

RESULTS

Expression arrays were used to identify up-regulated transcripts in a neuroendocrine (NE) transgenic mouse model of prostate cancer. Amongst these were several genes normally expressed in neural tissues, including the pro-neural transcription factors Ascl1 and Hes6. Using quantitative RT-PCR and immuno-histochemistry we showed that these same genes were highly expressed in castrate resistant, metastatic LNCaP cell-lines. Finally we performed a meta-analysis on expression array datasets from human clinical material. The expression of these pro-neural transcripts effectively segregates metastatic from localised prostate cancer and benign tissue as well as sub-clustering a variety of other human cancers.

CONCLUSION

By focussing on transcription factors known to drive normal tissue development and comparing expression signatures for normal and malignant mouse tissues we have identified two transcription factors, Ascl1 and Hes6, which appear effective markers for an aggressive phenotype in all prostate models and tissues examined. We suggest that the aberrant initiation of differentiation programs may confer a selective advantage on cells in all contexts and this approach to identify biomarkers therefore has the potential to uncover proteins equally applicable to pre-clinical and clinical cancer biology.

Effective ablation of pancreatic cancer cells in SCID mice using systemic adenoviral RIP-TK/GCV gene therapy

BACKGROUND

Studies have demonstrated that adenovirus subtype 5 mediated rat insulin promoter directed thymidine kinase (A-5-RIP-TK)/ganciclovir (GCV) gene therapy resulted in significant enhanced cytotoxicity to both PANC-1 and MIA PaCa2 pancreatic cancer cells in vitro. However, little is known about the effect in vivo. In this study we examine the in vivo safety and efficacy of intravenous A-5-RIP-TK/GCV gene therapy.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

1 x 10(6) Mia PaCa2 cells were injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) into SCID mice to create a mouse model of human pancreatic cancer. A-5-RIP-TK gene construct was administered intravenously (i.v.), followed by i.p. GCV administration. Intravenous injection of A-5-RIP-lacZ reporter gene constructs was used for evaluation of Ad-RIP-gene expression in tumors and other tissues. Optimal adenoviral and GCV doses and treatment duration were determined. Tumor volume, serum insulin, and glucose levels were measured. Immunohistochemical staining of pancreata and tumors were performed to assess morphology and hormone expression and apoptotic rates were determined.

RESULTS

All A-5-RIP-TK/GCV-treated mice had reduced tumor volume compared with controls, but maximal tumor volume reduction was observed with 10(8) vp followed by GCV treatment for 4 wk. A-5-RIP-TK/GCV gene therapy contributed to significant survival advantage in MIA PaCa2 bearing mice, and the greatest survival benefit was observed with 10(8) vp and was not affected by length of treatment of GCV. A-5-RIP-TK/GCV therapy increased PDX-1 expression and tumor cells apoptosis, and altered islet morphology. However, A-5-RIP-TK/GCV gene therapy caused diabetes associated with islet cell apoptosis, increased delta-cells and reduced pancreatic polypeptide (PP)-cell numbers.

CONCLUSIONS

Systemically administered A-5-RIP-TK/GCV is an effective treatment of pancreatic cancer. A-5-RIP-TK/GCV cytotoxicity to malignant cells varies with adenoviral dose and length of GCV treatment. However, A-5-RIP-TK/GCV is associated with islet cell toxicity and diabetogenesis. The type of diabetes observed is distinct from Types 1 and 2 and is associated with islet cell apoptosis and reduced delta- and PP-cells.

Specific sensitivity of small cell lung cancer cell lines to the snake venom toxin taipoxin

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a malignant disease, for which no satisfactory treatment is presently available and consequently, new specific therapeutic targets are in high demand. A global gene expression analysis previously performed, identified the neuronal pentraxin receptor (NPR) as highly and relatively specifically expressed in SCLC, consistent with the neuroendocrine features of this cancer. Normally, NPR is exclusively expressed in neurons, where it associates with the homologous proteins neuronal pentraxins 1 and 2 (NP1 and NP2) in complexes capable of binding the snake venom neurotoxin taipoxin. The purpose of the present study was to assess the toxic effect of taipoxin in SCLC-cell lines and to determine if toxicity correlates to NPR and NP1 and NP2 expression levels. NPR was detected by Western blot analysis in all the tested SCLC and in control cell lines of different origin. The receptor co-purified with cell membrane in SCLC, indicating that NPR is surface associated. Microarray signals for NP1 and NP2mRNA was detected in a subset of SCLC-cell lines and validated by Northern blot analysis. Furthermore, NP1 protein was detected by Western blot analysis in a few SCLC-cell lines, but not in the control cell lines. A number of SCLC-cell lines showed marked sensitivity to taipoxin (IC50: 3-130 nM) at toxin concentrations leaving the control cell lines unaffected. The sensitivity to taipoxin did not correlate with the expression levels of NP1 protein and NP2-mRNA, suggesting that expression of these proteins may not be required for taipoxin induced toxicity in SCLC. The demonstrated toxic effect of taipoxin in SCLC may prove to be of importance for designing novel specific treatment modalities for this disease.