人端粒酶催化亚基基因启动子调控的肿瘤细胞特异表达载体

为获得端粒酶阳性肿瘤细胞特异表达载体用于癌症的基因治疗 ,克隆并构建了人端粒酶催化亚基 (hTERT)基因启动子调控的萤光素酶报告载体 .用脂质体转染法将其分别转染肿瘤细胞和正常细胞 ,检测其在肿瘤细胞和正常细胞中的转录活性 .hTERT启动子在所检测的 4种端粒酶阳性的肿瘤细胞中具有明显的转录活性 ,平均为阳性对照的 4 4 3% ;而在端粒酶阴性的正常人胚肺成纤维细胞中则无明显的转录活性 .提示hTRET启动子的转录活性在端粒酶阳性的肿瘤细胞中明显上调 ,由hTERT启动子构建的载体可能是一种新颖和有前景的肿瘤细胞特异性表达的基因治疗载体     

Smac agonists sensitize for Apo2L/TRAIL- or anticancer drug-induced apoptosis and induce regression of malignant glioma in vivo

A major concern in cancer therapy is resistance of tumors such as glioblastoma to current treatment protocols. Here, we report that transfer of the gene encoding second mitochondria-derived activator of caspase (Smac) or Smac peptides sensitized various tumor cells in vitro and malignant glioma cells in vivo for apoptosis induced by death-receptor ligation or cytotoxic drugs. Expression of a cytosolic active form of Smac or cell-permeable Smac peptides bypassed the Bcl-2 block, which prevented the release of Smac from mitochondria, and also sensitized resistant neuroblastoma or melanoma cells and patient-derived primary neuroblastoma cells ex vivo. Most importantly, Smac peptides strongly enhanced the antitumor activity of Apo-2L/tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) in an intracranial malignant glioma xenograft model in vivo. Complete eradication of established tumors and survival of mice was only achieved upon combined treatment with Smac peptides and Apo2L/TRAIL without detectable toxicity to normal brain tissue. Thus, Smac agonists are promising candidates for cancer therapy by potentiating cytotoxic therapies.     

Proteomic screening of anaerobically regulated promoters from Salmonella and its antitumor applications

Solid tumors often contain hypoxic and necrotic areas that can be targeted by attenuated Salmonella typhimurium VNP20009 (VNP). We sought to develop a hypoxia- inducible promoter system based on the tumor-specific delivered strain VNP to confine expression of therapeutic gene specifically or selectively within the tumor microenvironment. A hypoxia-inducible promoter - adhE promoter was screened from the hypoxia-regulated endogenous proteins of Salmonella through two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight/time-of-flight MS-based proteomics approaches. The efficiency and specificity of the selected adhE promoter were validated first in both bacteria and animal tumor models. The adhE promoter could specifically drive GFP gene expression under hypoxia, but not under normoxia. Furthermore, luciferase reporter expression controlled by the system was also confined to the tumors. Finally, we investigated the anticancer efficacy of VNP delivering human endostatin controlled by our adhE promoter system in both murine melanoma and Lewis lung carcinoma models. Our results demonstrated that by the dual effects of tumoricidal and anti-angiogenic activities, the recombinant Salmonella strain could generate enhanced antitumor effects compared with those of unarmed VNP treatment or untreated control. The recombinant VNP could retard tumor growth significantly and extend survival of tumor-bearing mice by inducing more apoptosis and more severe necrosis as well as inhibiting blood vessel density within tumors. Therefore, VNP carrying the endostatin gene under our tumor-targeted expression system holds promise for the treatment of solid tumors.     

Development and characterization of a synthetic promoter for selective expression in proliferating endothelial cells

BACKGROUND: Systemic administration of non-viral gene therapy provides better access to tumors than local administration. Development of a promoter that restricts expression of cytotoxic proteins to the tumor vasculature will increase the safety of the system by minimizing expression in the non-dividing endothelial cells of the vasculature of non-target tissues. METHODS: Cell cycle promoters were tested for selective expression in dividing cells vs. non-dividing cells in vitro and promoter strength was compared to the cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter. Successful promoter candidates were tested in vivo using two proliferating endothelium mouse models. Ovarectomized mice were injected with estradiol prior to lipoplex administration and expression levels were measured in the lungs and uterus 4 days after administration. The second model was a subcutaneous tumor model and expression levels were measured in the lungs and tumors. For both animal models, expression levels from the proliferating endothelium promoter were compared to that obtained from a CMV promoter. RESULTS: The results showed that the Cdc6 promoter yielded higher expression in proliferating vs. non-proliferating cells. Secondly, promoter strength could be selectively increased in endothelial cells by the addition of a multimerized endothelin enhancer (ET) to the Cdc6 promoter. Thirdly, comparison of expression levels in the lungs vs. uterus in the ovarectomized mouse model and lungs vs. tumor in the mouse tumor model showed expression was much higher in the uterus and the tumor than in the lungs for the ET/Cdc6 promoter, and expression levels were comparable to that of the CMV promoter in the hypervascularized tissues. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that the combination of the endothelin enhancer with the Cdc6 promoter yields selective expression in proliferating endothelium and can be used to express cytotoxic proteins to treat vascularized tumors.     

E-box元件修饰端粒酶核心启动子序列及体外转录活性分析

人类端粒酶启动子(hTERT启动子)在肿瘤基因治疗中的有效性已经得到了证实. 然而,hTERT启动子有限的肿瘤靶向转录活性困扰着它的临床应用.早期研究已经揭示,核心hTERT启动子上的-34位E-box元件与该启动子的肿瘤靶向转录活性有关.为进一步探索核心hTERT启动子序列3′端富余E-box元件是否能提高启动子的肿瘤靶向转录能力,用化学合成方法在野生型hTERT(WT-hTERT)核心启动子片段(编码蛋白起始子ATG上游-268 bp～-10 bp)的3′端接入3个E-box序列, 构建成修饰型hTERT(Mod-hTERT)启动子. 然后,分别用WT-hTERT和Mod-hTERT启动子去调控增强型绿色荧光蛋白(EGFP)及荧光素酶报告基因在293FT、HepGⅡ、SGC7901、U2OS、以及原代培养人成纤维细胞(PHF)中表达. 结果表明, 在Mod-hTERT启动子的各实验组细胞中,能够在端粒酶阳性的293FT、HepGⅡ及 SGC7901细胞组中观测到EGFP的表达,而在端粒酶阴性的U2OS及PHF细胞组中没有观测到EGFP的表达;在端粒酶阳性的293FT、HepGⅡ和SGC7901细胞株中,Mod-hTERT启动子调控下的荧光素酶活性要高于WT-hTERT启动子组（P＜0.01）; 而在端粒酶阴性的U2OS细胞组中,Mod-hTERT启动子调控下的荧光素酶活性则低于WT-hTERT启动子组（P＜0.01); 在PHF细胞组中,Mod-hTERT启动子组与WT-hTERT启动子组的荧光素酶活性差异不显著(P＞0.05).研究提示,在3′端增加E-box元件可以提高核心hTERT启动子序列的肿瘤靶向转录活性.     

Adenovirus-mediated suicide gene therapy using the human telomerase catalytic subunit (hTERT) gene promoter induced apoptosis of ovarian cancer cell line

Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein complex the function of which is to add telomeric repeats (TTAGGG)(n) to chromosomal ends, and it is known to play an important role in cellular immortalization. Telomerase is highly active in most tumor cells, yet not in normal cells. As such, it may have possible applications in cancer gene therapy. Telomerase consists of two essential components, telomerase RNA template (hTR) and catalytic subunit (hTERT). hTERT is expressed only in cells and tissues positive for telomerase activity, i.e., tumor and fetal cells. We here tested the possibility of the utilization of the hTERT promoter in targeted cancer gene therapy. We cloned the hTERT promoter in the replace of the CMV promoter and sub-cloned HSV-TK gene to be controlled by hTERT gene promoter in adenovirus shuttle plasmid. Then we constructed recombinant adenovirus Ad-hT-TK, and infected them into normal and human gynecological cancer cell lines. Through these experiments, we identified the selective tumor specific cell death by Ad-hT-TK. Furthermore, FACS analysis and TUNEL assay suggests that the reduced viability is mediated through the induction of apoptosis, indicating that this approach may be a useful method for suppressing cancer growth in targeted cancer gene therapy. These results show that Ad-hT-TK could be used for gynecological cancer gene therapy.