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Synthetic Circular miR-21 Sponge as Tool for Lung Cancer Treatment. Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:ijms23062963. [PMID: 35328383 PMCID: PMC8955967 DOI: 10.3390/ijms23062963] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2022] [Revised: 02/27/2022] [Accepted: 03/04/2022] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the world and several miRNAs are associated with it. MiRNA sponges are presented as tools to inhibit miRNAs. We designed a system to capture miRNAs based on circular RNAs (circRNA). To demonstrate its usefulness, we chose miR-21, which is upregulated and implicated in lung cancer. We constructed a miR-21 sponge and inserted it into a vector that facilitates circular RNA production (Circ-21) to study its effect on growth, colony formation, and migration in lung cancer cell lines and multicellular tumor spheroids (MTS). Circ-21 induced a significant and time-dependent decrease in the growth of A549 and LL2 cells, but not in L132 cells. Furthermore, A549 and LL2 cells transfected with Circ-21 showed a lower number of colonies and migration than L132. Similar findings were seen in A549 and LL2 Circ-21 MTS, which showed a significant decrease in volume growth, but not in L132 Circ-21 MTS. Based on this, the miR-21 circular sponge may suppress the processes of tumorigenesis and progression. Therefore, our system based on circular sponges seems to be effective, as a tool for the capture of other miRNAs.
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Cao J, Novoa EM, Zhang Z, Chen WCW, Liu D, Choi GCG, Wong ASL, Wehrspaun C, Kellis M, Lu TK. High-throughput 5' UTR engineering for enhanced protein production in non-viral gene therapies. Nat Commun 2021; 12:4138. [PMID: 34230498 PMCID: PMC8260622 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24436-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2020] [Accepted: 06/14/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Despite significant clinical progress in cell and gene therapies, maximizing protein expression in order to enhance potency remains a major technical challenge. Here, we develop a high-throughput strategy to design, screen, and optimize 5' UTRs that enhance protein expression from a strong human cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter. We first identify naturally occurring 5' UTRs with high translation efficiencies and use this information with in silico genetic algorithms to generate synthetic 5' UTRs. A total of ~12,000 5' UTRs are then screened using a recombinase-mediated integration strategy that greatly enhances the sensitivity of high-throughput screens by eliminating copy number and position effects that limit lentiviral approaches. Using this approach, we identify three synthetic 5' UTRs that outperform commonly used non-viral gene therapy plasmids in expressing protein payloads. In summary, we demonstrate that high-throughput screening of 5' UTR libraries with recombinase-mediated integration can identify genetic elements that enhance protein expression, which should have numerous applications for engineered cell and gene therapies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jicong Cao
- Synthetic Biology Group, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Synthetic Biology Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Eva Maria Novoa
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Zhizhuo Zhang
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - William C W Chen
- Synthetic Biology Group, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Synthetic Biology Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Dianbo Liu
- Synthetic Biology Group, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Gigi C G Choi
- Synthetic Biology Group, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Synthetic Biology Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Alan S L Wong
- Synthetic Biology Group, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Synthetic Biology Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Claudia Wehrspaun
- Synthetic Biology Group, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Synthetic Biology Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Manolis Kellis
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | - Timothy K Lu
- Synthetic Biology Group, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Synthetic Biology Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
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Bissoli I, Muscari C. Doxorubicin and α-Mangostin oppositely affect luminal breast cancer cell stemness evaluated by a new retinaldehyde-dependent ALDH assay in MCF-7 tumor spheroids. Biomed Pharmacother 2020; 124:109927. [PMID: 31982725 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopha.2020.109927] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2019] [Revised: 12/29/2019] [Accepted: 12/29/2019] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
According to cancer stem cell theory, only a limited number of self-renewing and cloning cells are responsible for tumor relapse after a period of remittance. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of Doxorubicin and α-Mangostin, two antiproliferative drugs, on both tumor bulk and stem cells in multicellular tumor spheroids originated from the luminal MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. A new and original fluorimetric assay was used to selectively measure the activity of the retinaldehyde-dependent isoenzymes of aldehyde dehydrogenase (RALDH), which are markers of a subpopulation of breast cancer stem cells. The administration of 5 μg/ml (12.2 μM) α-Mangostin for 48 h provoked: i) a marked disaggregation of the spheroids, leading to a doubling of their volume (p < 0.01), ii) a 40 % decrease in cell viability (p < 0.01), evaluated by the acid phosphatase assay, and iii) a reduction by more than 90 % of RALDH activity. By contrast, Doxorubicin given for 48 h in the range of 0.1-40 μM did not significantly reduce cell viability and caused only a modest modification of the spheroid morphology. Moreover, 40 μM Doxorubicin increased RALDH activity 2.5-fold compared to the untreated sample. When the two drugs were administered together using 5 μg/ml α-Mangostin, the IC50 of Doxorubicin referred to cell viability decreased six-fold and the RALDH activity was further reduced. In conclusion, the combined administration of Doxorubicin and α-Mangostin provoked a significant cytotoxicity and a remarkable inhibition of RALDH activity in MCF-7 tumor spheroids, suggesting that these drugs could be effective in reducing cell stemness in luminal breast cancer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Irene Bissoli
- Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences (DIBINEM), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Claudio Muscari
- Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences (DIBINEM), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
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Specific driving of the suicide E gene by the CEA promoter enhances the effects of paclitaxel in lung cancer. Cancer Gene Ther 2019; 27:657-668. [PMID: 31548657 DOI: 10.1038/s41417-019-0137-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2019] [Revised: 07/15/2019] [Accepted: 07/20/2019] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Classical chemotherapy for lung cancer needs new strategies to enhance its antitumor effect. The cytotoxicity, nonspecificity, and low bioavailability of paclitaxel (PTX) limits their use in this type of cancer. Suicide gene therapy using tumor-specific promoters may increase treatment effectiveness. We used carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) as a tumor-specific promoter to drive the bacteriophage E gene (pCEA-E) towards lung cancer cells (A-549 human and LL2 mice cell lines) but not normal lung cells (L132 human embryonic lung cell line), in association with PTX as a combined treatment. The study was carried out using cell cultures, tumor spheroid models (MTS), subcutaneous induced tumors and lung cancer stem cells (CSCs). pCEA-E induced significant inhibition of A-549 and LL2 cell proliferation in comparison to L132 cells, which have lower CEA expression levels. Moreover, pCEA-E induced an important decrease in volume growth of A-549 and LL2 MTS producing intense apoptosis, in comparison to L132 MTS. In addition, pCEA-E enhanced the antitumor effects of PTX when combined, showing a synergistic effect. This effect was also observed in A-549 CSCs, which have been related to the recurrence of cancer. The in vivo study corroborated the effectiveness of the pCEA-E-PTX combined therapy, inducing a greater decrease in tumor volume compared to PTX and pCEA-E alone. Our results suggest that the CEA promoter is an excellent candidate for directing E gene expression specifically towards lung cancer cells, and may be used to enhance the effectiveness of PTX against this type of tumor.
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Boulaiz H, Álvarez PJ, Prados J, Marchal J, Melguizo C, Carrillo E, Peran M, Rodríguez F, Ramírez A, Ortíz R, Aránega A. gef gene expression in MCF-7 breast cancer cells is associated with a better prognosis and induction of apoptosis by p53-mediated signaling pathway. Int J Mol Sci 2011; 12:7445-58. [PMID: 22174609 PMCID: PMC3233415 DOI: 10.3390/ijms12117445] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2011] [Revised: 10/20/2011] [Accepted: 10/26/2011] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Breast cancer research has developed rapidly in the past few decades, leading to longer survival times for patients and opening up the possibility of developing curative treatments for advanced breast cancer. Our increasing knowledge of the biological pathways associated with the progression and development of breast cancer, alongside the failure of conventional treatments, has prompted us to explore gene therapy as an alternative therapeutic strategy. We previously reported that gef gene from E. coli has shown considerable cytotoxic effects in breast cancer cells. However, its action mechanism has not been elucidated. Indirect immunofluorescence technique using flow cytometry and immunocytochemical analysis were used to detect breast cancer markers: estrogen (ER) and progesterone (PR) hormonal receptors, human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 proto-oncogene (c-erbB-2), ki-67 antigen and p53 protein. gef gene induces an increase in ER and PR expressions and a decrease in ki-67 and c-erbB-2 gene expressions, indicating a better prognosis and response to treatment and a longer disease-free interval and survival. It also increased p53 expression, suggesting that gef-induced apoptosis is regulated by a p53-mediated signaling pathway. These findings support the hypothesis that the gef gene offers a new approach to gene therapy in breast cancer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Houria Boulaiz
- Basic Cardiovascular Research Section, Department of Anatomy and Human Embriology, School of Medicine, University of Granada, Granada E-18012, Spain; E-Mails: (P.J.A.); (J.P.); (J.M.); (C.M.); (E.C.); (F.R.)
- Biopathology and Medicine Regenerative Institute (IBIMER), Granada 18100, Spain; E-Mails: (A.R.); (R.O.)
| | - Pablo J. Álvarez
- Basic Cardiovascular Research Section, Department of Anatomy and Human Embriology, School of Medicine, University of Granada, Granada E-18012, Spain; E-Mails: (P.J.A.); (J.P.); (J.M.); (C.M.); (E.C.); (F.R.)
- Biopathology and Medicine Regenerative Institute (IBIMER), Granada 18100, Spain; E-Mails: (A.R.); (R.O.)
| | - Jose Prados
- Basic Cardiovascular Research Section, Department of Anatomy and Human Embriology, School of Medicine, University of Granada, Granada E-18012, Spain; E-Mails: (P.J.A.); (J.P.); (J.M.); (C.M.); (E.C.); (F.R.)
- Biopathology and Medicine Regenerative Institute (IBIMER), Granada 18100, Spain; E-Mails: (A.R.); (R.O.)
| | - Juan Marchal
- Basic Cardiovascular Research Section, Department of Anatomy and Human Embriology, School of Medicine, University of Granada, Granada E-18012, Spain; E-Mails: (P.J.A.); (J.P.); (J.M.); (C.M.); (E.C.); (F.R.)
- Biopathology and Medicine Regenerative Institute (IBIMER), Granada 18100, Spain; E-Mails: (A.R.); (R.O.)
| | - Consolación Melguizo
- Basic Cardiovascular Research Section, Department of Anatomy and Human Embriology, School of Medicine, University of Granada, Granada E-18012, Spain; E-Mails: (P.J.A.); (J.P.); (J.M.); (C.M.); (E.C.); (F.R.)
- Biopathology and Medicine Regenerative Institute (IBIMER), Granada 18100, Spain; E-Mails: (A.R.); (R.O.)
| | - Esmeralda Carrillo
- Basic Cardiovascular Research Section, Department of Anatomy and Human Embriology, School of Medicine, University of Granada, Granada E-18012, Spain; E-Mails: (P.J.A.); (J.P.); (J.M.); (C.M.); (E.C.); (F.R.)
- Biopathology and Medicine Regenerative Institute (IBIMER), Granada 18100, Spain; E-Mails: (A.R.); (R.O.)
| | - Macarena Peran
- Biopathology and Medicine Regenerative Institute (IBIMER), Granada 18100, Spain; E-Mails: (A.R.); (R.O.)
- Department of Health Sciences, University of Jaén, E-23071 Jaén, Spain; E-Mail:
| | - Fernando Rodríguez
- Basic Cardiovascular Research Section, Department of Anatomy and Human Embriology, School of Medicine, University of Granada, Granada E-18012, Spain; E-Mails: (P.J.A.); (J.P.); (J.M.); (C.M.); (E.C.); (F.R.)
| | - Alberto Ramírez
- Biopathology and Medicine Regenerative Institute (IBIMER), Granada 18100, Spain; E-Mails: (A.R.); (R.O.)
- Department of Health Sciences, University of Jaén, E-23071 Jaén, Spain; E-Mail:
| | - Raúl Ortíz
- Biopathology and Medicine Regenerative Institute (IBIMER), Granada 18100, Spain; E-Mails: (A.R.); (R.O.)
- Department of Health Sciences, University of Jaén, E-23071 Jaén, Spain; E-Mail:
| | - Antonia Aránega
- Basic Cardiovascular Research Section, Department of Anatomy and Human Embriology, School of Medicine, University of Granada, Granada E-18012, Spain; E-Mails: (P.J.A.); (J.P.); (J.M.); (C.M.); (E.C.); (F.R.)
- Biopathology and Medicine Regenerative Institute (IBIMER), Granada 18100, Spain; E-Mails: (A.R.); (R.O.)
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