Growth Retardation of Poorly Transfectable Tumor by Multiple Injections of Plasmids Encoding PE40 Based Targeted Toxin Complexed with Polyethylenimine.
Curr Gene Ther 2020;
20:289-296. [PMID:
32807050 DOI:
10.2174/1566523220999200817101422]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2020] [Revised: 07/14/2020] [Accepted: 07/27/2020] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND
One of the approaches to cancer gene therapy relies on tumor transfection with DNA encoding toxins under the control of tumor-specific promoters.
METHODS
Here, we used DNA plasmids encoding very potent anti-ERBB2 targeted toxin, driven by the human telomerase promoter or by the ubiquitous CAG promoter (pTERT-ETA and pCAG-ETA) and linear polyethylenimine to target cancer cells.
RESULTS
We showed that the selectivity of cancer cell killing by the pTERT-ETA plasmid is highly dependent upon the method of preparation of DNA-polyethylenimine complexes. After adjustment of complex preparation protocol, cell lines with high activity of telomerase promoter can be selectively killed by transfection with the pTERT-ETA plasmid. We also showed that cells transfected with pTERT-ETA and pCAG-ETA plasmids do not exert any detectable bystander effect in vitro.
CONCLUSION
Despite this, three intratumoral injections of a plasmid-polyethylenimine complex resulted in substantial growth retardation of a poorly transfectable D2F2/E2 tumor in mice. There were no significant differences in anti-tumor properties between DNA constructs with telomerase or CAG promoters in vivo.
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