只杀灭癌细胞而不感染正常细胞的病毒Sindbis

50年前,埃及Sindbis镇分离到的一种出于蚊的病毒很可能成为抗击癌症的最新武器.根据2 0 0 3年1 2月的NatureBiotechnology的一篇报道,有一种似乎是无害的病毒株居留在癌细胞中并破坏癌细胞.研究者在搜寻用来开发基因疗法病毒时,偶然碰见Sindbis病毒,这是不寻常的医药财富.最初的计划是改变该病毒表面的蛋白质,从而使该病毒能与特异类型的细胞相结合,并能在这种细胞中穿梭治疗基因.在研究中,研究者剥脱了Sindbis病毒株的复制能力.尽管这样,研究者注意到该病毒株仍具有能力侵袭与杀灭生长于实验皿中的许多类型的癌细胞,而不需要另外的基因与…     

寄生蜂携带的多DNA病毒的起源及其特性

病毒在通常意义上都是有害的寄生生物,但是有一类特殊的多DNA病毒(PDV)却成为在数量庞大的寄生蜂的生活史中不可或缺的共生病毒.PDV随着寄生蜂的卵一起被注入到寄主的体内,调控寄主的免疫和发育生理,从而确保幼蜂在寄主体内生存发育.PDV的基因组整合在寄生蜂的基因组内,因此PDV病毒粒子的形成并非在寄主受到侵染的组织内,而是位于寄生蜂卵巢的特定细胞(卵萼细胞)中,其编码的蛋白质几乎没有病毒结构性蛋白,主要的表达产物都用于调控寄主的生理活动.PDV基因编码序列比对分析结果显示,茧蜂病毒(BV)与致病性的裸病毒nudivirus和杆状病毒baculovirus存在一定的亲缘关系,然而这些同源基因已高度分化,具有不同的生物学特性,同时也不能确定这些基因是否还具有原始的功能.在寄生蜂基因组中尚有许多与裸病毒和杆状病毒类似的基因,其中一部分基因能够编码BV病毒粒子的结构蛋白,其表达模式亦与PDV病毒粒子的形成有关.由于PDV使用了与这2种病毒类似的传播途径,才使得寄生蜂的PDV基因转入寄主体内发挥作用,虽然这不能说明PDV属于这2种病毒,至少存在PDV从这2种病毒发展而来的可能性.     

病毒介导的免疫治疗癌症进展探究

癌症作为近些年来威胁人类健康的疾病,现代医学研究上引起人们的关注,近几年病毒介导在有关癌症的免疫治疗方面发挥着不可忽视的成效。笔者通过对以几个方面病毒介导免疫治疗的讨论,如病毒介导载体类型,对癌细胞的调节,以及对宿主细胞的调节,阐明了病毒介导对癌细胞发展的机制,对病毒介导的癌症治疗和临床研究提供了研究的方向。     

Vero 细胞流感疫苗应用前景

流行性感冒(简称流感)是由流感病毒引起的急性呼吸道传染病,其病毒基因组为单股负链分节段的RNA,外有包膜。根据病毒核壳蛋白(NP)和膜蛋白(MP)抗原特性及其基因特性的不同,分为甲(A)、乙(B)、丙(C)三型,甲型根据其表面(HA、NA)结构及其基因特性的不同又分为许多亚型,乙和丙型没     

量子点在癌症研究中的应用

半导体量子点具有长时间、多目标和灵敏度高等独特的光化学性质,这些特性使量子点成为细胞标记和生物应用中得到了广泛的应用。利用量子点目标定位癌细胞,对于寻找癌变部位具有指导的作用。近年来,利用量子点作为光动力学治疗癌症的能量供体也得到了一定的研究。简单地介绍了量子点独特的光学性质,并从量子点标记癌细胞、可视化癌细胞表面功能和在光动力学治疗癌症等方面综述了量子点在癌症诊断和治疗中的应用。     

又一种艾滋病疫苗

渥太华大学研究人员正在研制一种有潜力的艾滋病疫苗,该疫苗结合使用了病毒一寄主细胞侵染过程中的关键成分,包括HIV表面糖蛋白、内在基团特异性抗原、反转录酶以及反向作用调节蛋白。HIV表面糖蛋白的功能是使病毒-寄主细胞得以接触,内在基团特异性抗原则促进病毒成熟,反转录酶将遗传信息转变成前病毒DNA,后者插入到寄主     

携带TRAIL的溶瘤腺病毒联合LiCl对癌细胞的生长抑制效应

研究糖原合成激酶3的抑制剂LiCl联合携带TRA／L基因的溶瘤腺病毒Ad．sp—ElA—E1B（△55kDa）．TRAIL—Flag（Ad．sp—TRAIL—Flag）对癌细胞的体外杀伤作用。采用MTT法检测癌症特异性病毒Ad．sp—TRAIL—Flag联合药物LiCl对三种癌症细胞株的生长抑制作用;通过结晶紫实验进一步检测联合用药的杀伤效果：进而通过Western blot实验检测联合作用对癌细胞中TRAIL蛋白表达的影响,最后通过流式细胞仪检测其对癌细胞的凋亡作用。结果显示,LiCl联合Ad．sp—TRAIL．Flag的处理对癌细胞的增殖抑制作用明显优于两者单独使用。Western blot实验证明,LiCl可提高溶瘤腺病毒Ad．sp—TRAIL—FIag处理后TRAIL蛋白的表达水平,从而增强了溶瘤腺病毒Ad．sp—TRAIL—Flag通过乃己4儿的信号通路的杀伤效果。     

植物病毒蛋白核质转运的研究进展

植物病毒编码一些含有核定位信号(nuclear localization signal,NLS)或者核输出信号(nuclear export signal,NES)的核质转运蛋白,这些已被验证的转运蛋白有三种类型:核输入蛋白、核输出蛋白和核质穿梭蛋白。它们通过识别寄主核质转运受体Importinα和Importinβ,介导含有经典核定位信号的蛋白质入核过程,以及寄主蛋白Ran参与,由XPO1介导的富含亮氨酸核输出信号的蛋白质出核过程。植物病毒核质转运蛋白利用寄主的转运机制,进出细胞核发挥相应功能,如介导病毒基因组的核输入和核输出、介导病毒长距离运输及系统侵染、抵抗寄主细胞启动的RNA沉默、调节寄主细胞转录活性、调控病毒的复制及表达和参与病毒症状的形成等。对植物病毒蛋白核质转运的相关研究进展进行综述,着重介绍植物病毒蛋白核质转运类型、核输入和输出信号、转运机制和生物学意义,以及寄主蛋白介导的互作等研究的最新成果。     

植物病毒基因沉默抑制子研究进展

RNAi普遍存在于真核生物中,是植物应对外来病毒入侵的一种防御机制。但是植物病毒能通过产生不同的抑制子蛋白来抑制寄主基因沉默的发生。病毒抑制子通过干扰基因沉默的起始、siRNA的积累或干扰系统性基因沉默等方式抑制寄主的基因沉默。有的病毒抑制子蛋白还能促进病毒的积累和胞间移动,加强侵染组织的病毒病症状表现。主要阐述了RNAi的机制、病毒抑制PTGS的作用方式、几种常见的沉默抑制子以及抑制子与病毒侵染的关系。     

靶向攻击肿瘤的免疫疗法

用单克隆抗体治疗癌症一直是肿瘤免疫学研究的热点之一。以往的抗体治疗均以癌细胞表面蛋白为靶标,因为全抗体分子太大而不能穿过细胞膜。最近新加坡科技研究局下属的分子与细胞生物学研究所(IMCB)曾琦博士及其团队的研究发现,抗体治疗不仅能以胞外癌蛋白为靶标,也能以胞内癌蛋白为靶标,进入胞内杀死癌细胞,从而抑制癌细胞的生长;这些发现对癌症的免疫治疗具有突破性的意义。现将其主要内容摘录如下,供我国学者参考。读者有意阅读原文请看:[Ferrone S.Hidden immunotherapy targets challenge dogma,Sci Transl Med,2011,3(99):99ps38]     

肿瘤靶向腺相关病毒携带干扰素β和TRAIL对A549肺癌移植瘤的增强治疗效应(英文)

干扰素β(IFN-β)和肿瘤坏死因子相关凋亡诱导配体(TRAIL)是有效抗癌药物。腺相关病毒(AAV)为目前最有应用前景的基因转移载体之一。利用AAV携带IFN-β和TRAIL基因并置于hTERT启动子控制下分别构建成肿瘤靶向病毒AAV-hTERT-IFN-β和AAV-hTERT-TRAIL,且单个IFN-β或TRAIL基因治疗发挥了一定的抗癌效果。将AAV-hTERT-IFN-β和AAV-hTERT-TRAIL进行联合,旨在研究其对A549肺癌细胞体内外的生长抑制效应。ELISA法检测了AAV-hTERT-IFN-β感染A549细胞后分泌型IFN-β的表达;MTT法检测AAV-hTERT-IFN-β联合AAV-hTERT-TRAIL对肿瘤细胞的生长抑制作用;凋亡细胞染色和流式细胞仪分别检测了AAV-hTERT-IFN-β、AAV-hTERT-TRAIL及其联合对A549细胞的凋亡效应;进一步评价了联合AAV-hTERT-IFN-β和AAV-hTERT-TRAIL对A549裸鼠移植瘤的抑癌效果。结果显示,联合治疗优于任一单独治疗并且导致了增强的肿瘤细胞毒性和凋亡诱导效应。更进一步显示,联合AAV-hTERT-IFN-β和AAV-hTERT-TRAIL治疗发挥了重要的抑制裸鼠移植瘤效果甚至消除全部移植瘤,为探究IFN-β和TRAIL联合抗癌的分子机制奠定了基础。     

Cell signal mechanisms,conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs) and anti-tumorigenesis

Fats have been adversely implicated in the aetiology of many forms of cancer yet evidence is accumulating that certain types of fatty acids have anticancer properties. This is well documented for fish-oil fatty acids of the n-3 family. Recently, fatty acids found to occur naturally in ruminant-derived food products were found to have anticancer properties. These fatty acids were identified as conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs) derived from the parent linoleic acid by its partial hydrogenation by rumen bacteria. Studies with tumour-bearing animals have shown that consumption of CLAs particularly with regard to breast and prostate cancer is beneficial. Studies with cancer cells have also shown that these fatty acids can inhibit cell proliferation and induce cell death. However, little is known regarding the mechanisms of action of these CLAs. In particular, which cellular signal mechanisms are regulated by CLAs which can explain their anticancer properties. We have shown that CLAs specifically up-regulate cell signal systems at the level of gene expression (mRNA, protein) in human breast and prostate cancer cells which are responsible for the induction of apoptosis or programmed cell death. These findings support the anticancer effects of CLA found in animal models and indicate similar effects could occur in man.     

Statins,stem cells,and cancer

The statins (3‐hydroxy‐3‐methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors) were proven to be effective antilipid agents against cardiovascular disease. Recent reports demonstrate an anticancer effect induced by the statins through inhibition of cell proliferation, induction of apoptosis, or inhibition of angiogenesis. These effects are due to suppression of the mevalonate pathway leading to depletion of various downstream products that play an essential role in cell cycle progression, cell signaling, and membrane integrity. Recent evidence suggests a shared genomic fingerprint between embryonic stem cells, cancer cells, and cancer stem cells. Activation targets of NANOG, OCT4, SOX2, and c‐MYC are more frequently overexpressed in certain tumors. In the absence of bona fide cancer stem cell lines, human embryonic stem cells, which have similar properties to cancer and cancer stem cells, have been an excellent model throwing light on the anticancer affects of various putative anticancer agents. It was shown that key cellular functions in karyotypically abnormal colorectal and ovarian cancer cells and human embryonic stem cells are inhibited by the statins and this is mediated via a suppression of this stemness pathway. The strategy for treatment of cancers may thus be the targeting of a putative cancer stem cell within the tumor with specific agents such as the statins with or without chemotherapy. The statins may thus play a dual prophylactic role as a lipid‐lowering drug for the prevention of heart disease and as an anticancer agent to prevent certain cancers. This review examines the relationship between the statins, stem cells, and certain cancers. J. Cell. Biochem. 106: 975–983, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Apoptin enhances the oncolytic activity of vaccinia virus in vitro

The chicken anemia virus gene that encodes apoptin, a selective killer of cancer cells, was synthe-sized and inserted into the vaccinia virus (strain L-IVP) genome. The insertion replaces a major part of the viral C11R gene that encodes viral growth factor, which is important for virulence. The recombinant virus VVdGF-ApoS24/2 was obtained by transient dominant selection using the gene of puromycin resistance as a selective marker. The expression of the apoptin gene from a synthetic early-late promoter of vaccinia virus ensured the efficient accumulation of the target protein in VVdGF-ApoS24/2-infected cells. Although recombinant apoptin carried the signal peptide of the virus growth factor at the N-end, the protein was not secreted into the culture medium. The recombinant virus VVdGF-ApoS24/2 exhibited significantly higher selective lytic activity in human cancer cell lines (A549, A431, U87MG, RD, and MCF7) than the parent strain L-IVP and its VVdGF2/6 variant with C11R deletion. These results suggest that the use of apoptin can be an efficient means of enhancing the natural anticancer activity of vaccinia virus.     

Inactivated Sendai virus strain Tianjin induces apoptosis and autophagy through reactive oxygen species production in osteosarcoma MG-63 cells

Sendai virus strain Tianjin, a novel genotype of Sendai virus, has been proven to possess potent antitumor effect on certain cancer cell types although inactivated by ultraviolet (UV). This study was carried out to investigate the in vitro anticancer properties of UV-inactivated Sendai virus strain Tianjin (UV-Tianjin) on human osteosarcoma cells and the underlying molecular mechanism. Our studies demonstrated UV-Tianjin significantly inhibited the viability of human osteosarcoma cell lines and triggered apoptosis through activation of both extrinsic and intrinsic pathways in MG-63 cells. Meanwhile, autophagy occurred in UV-Tianjin-treated cells. Blockade of autophagy with 3-methyladenine remarkably attenuated the inhibition of cell proliferation by UV-Tianjin, suggesting that UV-Tianjin-induced autophagy may be contributing to cell death. Furthermore, UV-Tianjin induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, which was involved in the execution of MG-63 cell apoptosis and autophagy, as evidenced by the result that treatment of N-acetyl-L-cysteine, a ROS scavenger, attenuated both apoptosis and autophagy. In addition, inhibition of apoptosis promoted autophagy, whereas suppression of autophagy attenuated apoptosis. Our results suggest that UV-Tianjin triggers apoptosis and autophagic cell death via generation of the ROS in MG-63 cells, which might provide important insights into the effectiveness of novel strategies for osteosarcoma therapy.     

Gene therapy using anticancer drug-resistance genes

Myelosuppression is a major dose-limiting factor in cancer chemotherapy. Introduction of drug-resistance genes into bone marrow cells of cancer patients has been proposed to overcome this limitation. In theory, any gene whose expression protects cells against the toxic effects of chemotherapy should be useful in vivo for this purpose. Among such genes, human multidrug-resistance gene (MDR1) has been studied most extensively for this purpose, and clinical trials of drug-resistance gene therapy have been started in the US for cancer patients who undergo high-dose chemotherapy with autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. In Japan, our clinical protocol of MDR1 gene therapy "A clinical study of drug-resistance gene therapy to improve the efficacy and safety of chemotherapy against breast cancer" has been submitted to the government. To improve the efficacy and safety of this drug-resistance gene therapy, we have constructed a series of MDR1-bicistronic retrovirus vectors using a retrovirus backbone of Harvey murine sarcoma virus and internal ribosome entry site (IRES) from picornavirus to co-express a second gene with the MDR1 gene. MDR1-MGMT bicistronic vectors can be used to protect bone marrow cells of cancer patients from combination chemotherapy with MDR1-related anticancer agents and nitrosoureas. In addition, MDR1-bicistronic retrovirus vectors can be designed to use the MDR1 gene as an in vivo selectable marker to enrich the transduced cells which express therapeutic genes, if disease is curable by the expression of a single-peptide gene in any types of bone marrow cells or peripheral blood cells.     

Synergistic induction of tumor cell death by combining cisplatin with an oncolytic adenovirus carrying TRAIL

Chemoresistance and side effects are considered as the major obstacles in cisplatin-based chemotherapy of various human malignant tumors. Conjugation with cancer-specific apoptotic stimuli TRAIL or typical viro-agent ONYX-015 has been extensively investigated to enhance the antitumor activity of cisplatin. In this study, we presented a novel chemo-gene-virotherapeutic strategy to further improve the toxic effects in cancer cells and reduce the damage in normal cells. Here, an oncolytic adenoviral vector (ZD55), with a deletion of E1B 55-kDa gene, was employed to express the therapeutic TRAIL gene by constructing a recombinant virus ZD55-TRAIL. Exogenous gene delivery efficacy was determined by both in vitro and in vivo experiments and enhanced cytotoxicity of combined treatment of ZD55-TRAIL with cisplatin was evaluated in several cancer cell lines. Moreover, negative effects on normal cells have been tested in both L-02 and MRC-5 cell lines by MTT assay and apoptotic cell staining. According to our observation, combination of ZD55-TRAIL with cisplatin exhibited an apparent synergistic cytotoxicity in cancer cells, yet significantly abolished the negative toxicity in normal cells by reducing the dosage. Thus, a novel chemo-gene-virotherapeutic strategy for cancer therapy was proposed.     

Investigation of optimal transduction conditions for baculovirus-mediated gene delivery into mammalian cells

Although baculovirus-mediated gene delivery into mammalian cells has been documented in a wealth of the literature, systematic investigation of the optimal transduction conditions remains unavailable. In this work, a transduction protocol using unconcentrated baculovirus is proposed for simple and efficient gene delivery into HeLa cells. We found that approximately 75-85% of the cells could be readily transduced and express the reporter protein when virus transduction occurred for 4 h at 25 degrees C using Dulbecco's phosphate-buffered saline (D-PBS) as the surrounding solution. This method contrasts with previous protocols in which transduction occurs for 1 h at 37 degrees C using growth medium (e.g., DMEM) as the surrounding solution. Investigation of the physical parameters led to the findings that: 1) baculovirus uptake by HeLa cells continued for at least 4 h in the event of high virus dosage, which led to higher gene expression; 2) the half-life of baculovirus dramatically decreased at 37 degrees C; 3) EGTA pretreatment did not apparently facilitate the gene delivery when the cells grew to multilayers; and 4) lower transduction efficiency and gene expression were obtained when DMEM was used (in comparison with D-PBS and TNM-FH), suggesting that DMEM contains certain inhibitory factors for baculovirus transduction. Our data uncovered several aspects that were not investigated before and the optimized transduction conditions allowed for gene delivery as efficient as that by the protocols commonly employed by others, but eliminated the need for virus ultracentrifugation. The protocol not only represented a simpler approach, but also considerably reduced possible virus inactivation during ultracentrifugation, thus making it easier to convert the baculovirus/mammalian cell system to a tool for eukaryotic protein production on a larger scale.     

Noncytotoxic ribonuclease, RNase T1, induces tumor cell death via hemagglutinating virus of Japan envelope vector.

Several ribonucleases, including onconase and alpha-sarcin, are known to be toxic to tumor cells. On the other hand, although its structure is related to that of alpha-sarcin, RNase T1 is noncytotoxic because of its inability to internalize into tumor cells. In this study, we internalized RNase T1 into human tumor cells via a novel gene transfer reagent, hemagglutinating virus of Japan (HVJ) envelope vector, which resulted in cell death. This cytotoxicity was drastically increased by pretreatment of HVJ envelope vector with protamine sulfate, and was stronger than that of onconase, which is in phase III human clinical trials as a nonmutagenic cancer chemotherapeutic agent. Furthermore, internalized RNase T1 induced apoptotic cell death programs. Because its cytotoxicity is unfortunately not specific to tumor cells, it cannot at present be developed as an anticancer drug. However, we believe that RNase T1 incorporated in HVJ envelope vector will be a unique anticancer drug if HVJ envelope vector can be targeted to tumor cells.     

The evolution of two mutations during clonal expansion

Knudson's two-hit hypothesis proposes that two genetic changes in the RB1 gene are the rate-limiting steps of retinoblastoma. In the inherited form of this childhood eye cancer, only one mutation emerges during somatic cell divisions while in sporadic cases, both alleles of RB1 are inactivated in the growing retina. Sporadic retinoblastoma serves as an example of a situation in which two mutations are accumulated during clonal expansion of a cell population. Other examples include evolution of resistance against anticancer combination therapy and inactivation of both alleles of a metastasis-suppressor gene during tumor growth. In this article, we consider an exponentially growing population of cells that must evolve two mutations to (i) evade treatment, (ii) make a step toward (invasive) cancer, or (iii) display a disease phenotype. We calculate the probability that the population has evolved both mutations before it reaches a certain size. This probability depends on the rates at which the two mutations arise; the growth and death rates of cells carrying none, one, or both mutations; and the size the cell population reaches. Further, we develop a formula for the expected number of cells carrying both mutations when the final population size is reached. Our theory establishes an understanding of the dynamics of two mutations during clonal expansion.