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Evans MM, Liu S, Krautner JS, Seguin CG, Leung R, Ronald JA. Evaluation of DNA minicircles for delivery of adenine and cytosine base editors using activatable gene on "GO" reporter imaging systems. MOLECULAR THERAPY. NUCLEIC ACIDS 2024; 35:102248. [PMID: 39040503 PMCID: PMC11260848 DOI: 10.1016/j.omtn.2024.102248] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2023] [Accepted: 06/07/2024] [Indexed: 07/24/2024]
Abstract
Over 30,000 point mutations are associated with debilitating diseases, including many cancer types, underscoring a critical need for targeted genomic solutions. CRISPR base editors, like adenine base editors (ABEs) and cytosine base editors (CBEs), enable precise modifications by converting adenine to guanine and cytosine to thymine, respectively. Challenges in efficiency and safety concerns regarding viral vectors used in delivery limit the scope of base editing. This study introduces non-viral minicircles, bacterial-backbone-free plasmids, as a delivery vehicle for ABEs and CBEs. The research uses cells engineered with the "Gene On" (GO) reporter gene systems for tracking minicircle-delivered ABEs, CBEs, or Cas9 nickase (control), using green fluorescent protein (GFPGO), bioluminescence reporter firefly luciferase (LUCGO), or a highly sensitive Akaluciferase (AkalucGO) designed in this study. The results show that transfection of minicircles expressing CBE or ABE resulted in significantly higher GFP expression and luminescence signals over controls, with minicircles demonstrating the most substantial editing. This study presents minicircles as a new strategy for base editor delivery and develops an enhanced bioluminescence imaging reporter system for tracking ABE activity. Future studies aim to evaluate the use of minicircles in preclinical cancer models, facilitating potential clinical applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melissa M. Evans
- Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada
- Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 5C1, Canada
| | - Shirley Liu
- Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada
- Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 5C1, Canada
| | - Joshua S. Krautner
- Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada
- Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 5C1, Canada
| | - Caroline G. Seguin
- Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada
| | - Rajan Leung
- Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada
- Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 5C1, Canada
| | - John A. Ronald
- Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada
- Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 5C1, Canada
- Lawson Health Research Institute, London, ON N6C 2R5, Canada
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2
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Hao L, Boehnke N, Elledge SK, Harzallah NS, Zhao RT, Cai E, Feng YX, Neaher S, Fleming HE, Gupta PB, Hammond PT, Bhatia SN. Targeting and monitoring ovarian cancer invasion with an RNAi and peptide delivery system. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2307802121. [PMID: 38437557 PMCID: PMC10945808 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2307802121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2023] [Accepted: 12/28/2023] [Indexed: 03/06/2024] Open
Abstract
RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics are an emerging class of medicines that selectively target mRNA transcripts to silence protein production and combat disease. Despite the recent progress, a generalizable approach for monitoring the efficacy of RNAi therapeutics without invasive biopsy remains a challenge. Here, we describe the development of a self-reporting, theranostic nanoparticle that delivers siRNA to silence a protein that drives cancer progression while also monitoring the functional activity of its downstream targets. Our therapeutic target is the transcription factor SMARCE1, which was previously identified as a key driver of invasion in early-stage breast cancer. Using a doxycycline-inducible shRNA knockdown in OVCAR8 ovarian cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo, we demonstrate that SMARCE1 is a master regulator of genes encoding proinvasive proteases in a model of human ovarian cancer. We additionally map the peptide cleavage profiles of SMARCE1-regulated proteases so as to design a readout for downstream enzymatic activity. To demonstrate the therapeutic and diagnostic potential of our approach, we engineered self-assembled layer-by-layer nanoparticles that can encapsulate nucleic acid cargo and be decorated with peptide substrates that release a urinary reporter upon exposure to SMARCE1-related proteases. In an orthotopic ovarian cancer xenograft model, theranostic nanoparticles were able to knockdown SMARCE1 which was in turn reported through a reduction in protease-activated urinary reporters. These LBL nanoparticles both silence gene products by delivering siRNA and noninvasively report on downstream target activity by delivering synthetic biomarkers to sites of disease, enabling dose-finding studies as well as longitudinal assessments of efficacy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liangliang Hao
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA02139
| | - Natalie Boehnke
- Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN55455
| | - Susanna K. Elledge
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA02139
| | - Nour-Saïda Harzallah
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA02139
| | - Renee T. Zhao
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA02139
| | - Eva Cai
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA02139
- Harvard University–Massachusetts Institute of Technology Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA02139
| | - Yu-Xiong Feng
- Department of Biology, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA02142
| | - Sofia Neaher
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA02139
| | - Heather E. Fleming
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA02139
- Harvard University–Massachusetts Institute of Technology Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA02139
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA02139
| | | | - Paula T. Hammond
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA02139
- Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA02139
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA02139
- Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA02139
| | - Sangeeta N. Bhatia
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA02139
- Harvard University–Massachusetts Institute of Technology Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA02139
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA02139
- Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA02139
- Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, Cambridge, MA02142
- Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA02115
- Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, MA02115
- HHMI, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA02139
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3
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Zhong Q, Tan EKW, Martin-Alonso C, Parisi T, Hao L, Kirkpatrick JD, Fadel T, Fleming HE, Jacks T, Bhatia SN. Inhalable point-of-care urinary diagnostic platform. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2024; 10:eadj9591. [PMID: 38181080 PMCID: PMC10776015 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adj9591] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2023] [Accepted: 12/01/2023] [Indexed: 01/07/2024]
Abstract
Although low-dose computed tomography screening improves lung cancer survival in at-risk groups, inequality remains in lung cancer diagnosis due to limited access to and high costs of medical imaging infrastructure. We designed a needleless and imaging-free platform, termed PATROL (point-of-care aerosolizable nanosensors with tumor-responsive oligonucleotide barcodes), to reduce resource disparities for early detection of lung cancer. PATROL formulates a set of DNA-barcoded, activity-based nanosensors (ABNs) into an inhalable format. Lung cancer-associated proteases selectively cleave the ABNs, releasing synthetic DNA reporters that are eventually excreted via the urine. The urinary signatures of barcoded nanosensors are quantified within 20 min at room temperature using a multiplexable paper-based lateral flow assay. PATROL detects early-stage tumors in an autochthonous lung adenocarcinoma mouse model with high sensitivity and specificity. Tailoring the library of ABNs may enable not only the modular PATROL platform to lower the resource threshold for lung cancer early detection tools but also the rapid detection of chronic pulmonary disorders and infections.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qian Zhong
- Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Marble Center of Cancer Nanomedicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Edward K. W. Tan
- Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Marble Center of Cancer Nanomedicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Carmen Martin-Alonso
- Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Harvard-MIT Division Health Sciences and Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Tiziana Parisi
- Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Liangliang Hao
- Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Marble Center of Cancer Nanomedicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Institute of Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Jesse D. Kirkpatrick
- Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Tarek Fadel
- Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Marble Center of Cancer Nanomedicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Heather E. Fleming
- Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Tyler Jacks
- Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Sangeeta N. Bhatia
- Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Marble Center of Cancer Nanomedicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Harvard-MIT Division Health Sciences and Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Institute of Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
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Fu Y, Wang T, Ronald JA. A synthetic notch (synNotch) system linking intratumoral immune-cancer cell communication to a synthetic blood biomarker assay. Front Pharmacol 2023; 14:1304194. [PMID: 38143496 PMCID: PMC10740178 DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1304194] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2023] [Accepted: 11/27/2023] [Indexed: 12/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction: Cellular immunotherapy has greatly improved cancer treatment in recent years. For instance, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has been proven highly effective in treating hematological malignancies, and many CAR cell designs are being explored for solid tumors. However, many questions remain why responses differ across patients and some tumor types are resistant. Improved and relatively inexpensive ways to monitor these cells could provide some answers. Clinically, blood tests are regularly used to monitor these therapies, but blood signals often do not reflect the activity of immune cells within the tumor(s). Here, using the synthetic Notch (synNotch) receptor that tethers antigen binding to customized transgene expression, we linked intratumoral immune-cancer cell communication to a simple secreted reporter blood test. Specifically, we engineered immune cells with a CD19-targeted synNotch receptor and demonstrated that binding to CD19 on cancer cells in vivo resulted in the production of secreted embryonic alkaline phosphatase (SEAP) at levels that are readily detected in the blood. Methods and Results: Jurkat T cells were engineered via sequential lentiviral transduction of two components: an anti-CD19 synNotch receptor and a synNotch response element encoding SEAP. Co-culture of engineered cells with CD19+, but not CD19-, Nalm6 cells, resulted in significantly elevated SEAP in media. Nod-scid-gamma (NSG) mice were subcutaneously injected with either CD19+ or CD19- Nalm6 cells. Intratumoral injection of engineered T cells (1x107) resulted in significantly elevated blood SEAP activity in mice bearing CD19+ tumors (n = 7), but not CD19- tumors (n = 5). Discussion: Our synNotch reporter system allows for the monitoring of antigen-dependent intratumoral immune-cancer cell interactions through a simple and convenient blood test. Continued development of this system for different target antigens of interest should provide a broadly applicable platform for improved monitoring of many cell-based immunotherapies during their initial development and clinical translation, ultimately improving our understanding of design considerations and patient-specific responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- YangHao Fu
- Imaging Laboratories, Department of Medical Biophysics, Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
| | - TianDuo Wang
- Imaging Laboratories, Department of Medical Biophysics, Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
| | - John A Ronald
- Imaging Laboratories, Department of Medical Biophysics, Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
- Lawson Health Research Institute, London, ON, Canada
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5
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Hao L, Zhao RT, Welch NL, Tan EKW, Zhong Q, Harzallah NS, Ngambenjawong C, Ko H, Fleming HE, Sabeti PC, Bhatia SN. CRISPR-Cas-amplified urinary biomarkers for multiplexed and portable cancer diagnostics. NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY 2023; 18:798-807. [PMID: 37095220 PMCID: PMC10359190 DOI: 10.1038/s41565-023-01372-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2021] [Accepted: 03/10/2023] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
Synthetic biomarkers, bioengineered sensors that generate molecular reporters in diseased microenvironments, represent an emerging paradigm in precision diagnostics. Despite the utility of DNA barcodes as a multiplexing tool, their susceptibility to nucleases in vivo has limited their utility. Here we exploit chemically stabilized nucleic acids to multiplex synthetic biomarkers and produce diagnostic signals in biofluids that can be 'read out' via CRISPR nucleases. The strategy relies on microenvironmental endopeptidase to trigger the release of nucleic acid barcodes and polymerase-amplification-free, CRISPR-Cas-mediated barcode detection in unprocessed urine. Our data suggest that DNA-encoded nanosensors can non-invasively detect and differentiate disease states in transplanted and autochthonous murine cancer models. We also demonstrate that CRISPR-Cas amplification can be harnessed to convert the readout to a point-of-care paper diagnostic tool. Finally, we employ a microfluidic platform for densely multiplexed, CRISPR-mediated DNA barcode readout that can potentially evaluate complex human diseases rapidly and guide therapeutic decisions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liangliang Hao
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Renee T Zhao
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Nicole L Welch
- Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Harvard Program in Virology, Division of Medical Sciences, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Edward Kah Wei Tan
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Qian Zhong
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Nour Saida Harzallah
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Chayanon Ngambenjawong
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Henry Ko
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Heather E Fleming
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD, USA
| | - Pardis C Sabeti
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD, USA
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Immunology and Infectious Disease, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Sangeeta N Bhatia
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD, USA.
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
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6
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Jiang K, Koob J, Chen XD, Krajeski RN, Zhang Y, Volf V, Zhou W, Sgrizzi SR, Villiger L, Gootenberg JS, Chen F, Abudayyeh OO. Programmable eukaryotic protein synthesis with RNA sensors by harnessing ADAR. Nat Biotechnol 2023; 41:698-707. [PMID: 36302988 DOI: 10.1038/s41587-022-01534-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 27.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2022] [Accepted: 09/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Programmable approaches to sense and respond to the presence of specific RNAs in biological systems have broad applications in research, diagnostics, and therapeutics. Here we engineer a programmable RNA-sensing technology, reprogrammable ADAR sensors (RADARS), which harnesses RNA editing by adenosine deaminases acting on RNA (ADAR) to gate translation of a cargo protein by the presence of endogenous RNA transcripts. Introduction of a stop codon in a guide upstream of the cargo makes translation contingent on binding of an endogenous transcript to the guide, leading to ADAR editing of the stop codon and allowing translational readthrough. Through systematic sensor engineering, we achieve 277 fold improvement in sensor activation and engineer RADARS with diverse cargo proteins, including luciferases, fluorescent proteins, recombinases, and caspases, enabling detection sensitivity on endogenous transcripts expressed at levels as low as 13 transcripts per million. We show that RADARS are functional as either expressed DNA or synthetic mRNA and with either exogenous or endogenous ADAR. We apply RADARS in multiple contexts, including tracking transcriptional states, RNA-sensing-induced cell death, cell-type identification, and control of synthetic mRNA translation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaiyi Jiang
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Jeremy Koob
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Xi Dawn Chen
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Systems, Synthetic, and Quantitative Biology Program, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Rohan N Krajeski
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Yifan Zhang
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Verena Volf
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Wenyuan Zhou
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Samantha R Sgrizzi
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Lukas Villiger
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Jonathan S Gootenberg
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Gene Regulation Observatory, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | - Fei Chen
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Gene Regulation Observatory, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | - Omar O Abudayyeh
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Gene Regulation Observatory, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
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7
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Brito-Rocha T, Constâncio V, Henrique R, Jerónimo C. Shifting the Cancer Screening Paradigm: The Rising Potential of Blood-Based Multi-Cancer Early Detection Tests. Cells 2023; 12:cells12060935. [PMID: 36980276 PMCID: PMC10047029 DOI: 10.3390/cells12060935] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2023] [Revised: 03/14/2023] [Accepted: 03/15/2023] [Indexed: 03/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Cancer remains a leading cause of death worldwide, partly owing to late detection which entails limited and often ineffective therapeutic options. Most cancers lack validated screening procedures, and the ones available disclose several drawbacks, leading to low patient compliance and unnecessary workups, adding up the costs to healthcare systems. Hence, there is a great need for innovative, accurate, and minimally invasive tools for early cancer detection. In recent years, multi-cancer early detection (MCED) tests emerged as a promising screening tool, combining molecular analysis of tumor-related markers present in body fluids with artificial intelligence to simultaneously detect a variety of cancers and further discriminate the underlying cancer type. Herein, we aim to provide a highlight of the variety of strategies currently under development concerning MCED, as well as the major factors which are preventing clinical implementation. Although MCED tests depict great potential for clinical application, large-scale clinical validation studies are still lacking.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tiago Brito-Rocha
- Cancer Biology and Epigenetics Group, Research Center (CI-IPOP)/RISE@CI-IPOP (Health Research Network), Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto (IPO-Porto)/Porto Comprehensive Cancer Center Raquel Seruca (P.CCC), Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal
- Master Program in Oncology, School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, University of Porto (ICBAS-UP), Rua Jorge Viterbo Ferreira 228, 4050-513 Porto, Portugal
| | - Vera Constâncio
- Cancer Biology and Epigenetics Group, Research Center (CI-IPOP)/RISE@CI-IPOP (Health Research Network), Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto (IPO-Porto)/Porto Comprehensive Cancer Center Raquel Seruca (P.CCC), Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal
- Doctoral Program in Biomedical Sciences, School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, University of Porto (ICBAS-UP), Rua Jorge Viterbo Ferreira 228, 4050-513 Porto, Portugal
| | - Rui Henrique
- Cancer Biology and Epigenetics Group, Research Center (CI-IPOP)/RISE@CI-IPOP (Health Research Network), Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto (IPO-Porto)/Porto Comprehensive Cancer Center Raquel Seruca (P.CCC), Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal
- Department of Pathology, Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto (IPO-Porto), Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal
- Department of Pathology and Molecular Immunology, School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, University of Porto (ICBAS-UP), Rua Jorge Viterbo Ferreira 228, 4050-513 Porto, Portugal
| | - Carmen Jerónimo
- Cancer Biology and Epigenetics Group, Research Center (CI-IPOP)/RISE@CI-IPOP (Health Research Network), Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto (IPO-Porto)/Porto Comprehensive Cancer Center Raquel Seruca (P.CCC), Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal
- Department of Pathology and Molecular Immunology, School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, University of Porto (ICBAS-UP), Rua Jorge Viterbo Ferreira 228, 4050-513 Porto, Portugal
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8
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Comeau ZJ, Lessard BH, Shuhendler AJ. The Need to Pair Molecular Monitoring Devices with Molecular Imaging to Personalize Health. Mol Imaging Biol 2022; 24:675-691. [PMID: 35257276 PMCID: PMC8901094 DOI: 10.1007/s11307-022-01714-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2022] [Revised: 02/16/2022] [Accepted: 02/18/2022] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
By enabling the non-invasive monitoring and quantification of biomolecular processes, molecular imaging has dramatically improved our understanding of disease. In recent years, non-invasive access to the molecular drivers of health versus disease has emboldened the goal of precision health, which draws on concepts borrowed from process monitoring in engineering, wherein hundreds of sensors can be employed to develop a model which can be used to preventatively detect and diagnose problems. In translating this monitoring regime from inanimate machines to human beings, precision health posits that continual and on-the-spot monitoring are the next frontiers in molecular medicine. Early biomarker detection and clinical intervention improves individual outcomes and reduces the societal cost of treating chronic and late-stage diseases. However, in current clinical settings, methods of disease diagnoses and monitoring are typically intermittent, based on imprecise risk factors, or self-administered, making optimization of individual patient outcomes an ongoing challenge. Low-cost molecular monitoring devices capable of on-the-spot biomarker analysis at high frequencies, and even continuously, could alter this paradigm of therapy and disease prevention. When these devices are coupled with molecular imaging, they could work together to enable a complete picture of pathogenesis. To meet this need, an active area of research is the development of sensors capable of point-of-care diagnostic monitoring with an emphasis on clinical utility. However, a myriad of challenges must be met, foremost, an integration of the highly specialized molecular tools developed to understand and monitor the molecular causes of disease with clinically accessible techniques. Functioning on the principle of probe-analyte interactions yielding a transducible signal, probes enabling sensing and imaging significantly overlap in design considerations and targeting moieties, however differing in signal interpretation and readout. Integrating molecular sensors with molecular imaging can provide improved data on the personal biomarkers governing disease progression, furthering our understanding of pathogenesis, and providing a positive feedback loop toward identifying additional biomarkers and therapeutics. Coupling molecular imaging with molecular monitoring devices into the clinical paradigm is a key step toward achieving precision health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zachary J Comeau
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Ottawa, 161 Louis Pasteur, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada
- Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Ottawa, 150 Louis Pasteur, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada
| | - Benoît H Lessard
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Ottawa, 161 Louis Pasteur, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada
- School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Ottawa, 800 King Edward Ave., Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada
| | - Adam J Shuhendler
- Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Ottawa, 150 Louis Pasteur, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada.
- Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, 30 Marie Curie, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada.
- University of Ottawa Heart Institute, 40 Ruskin St, Ottawa, ON, K1Y 4W7, Canada.
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9
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Shueng PW, Shih KC, Gambhir SS, Kuo DY, Chuang HY. Cancer Detection Using an Artificial Secretable MicroRNA Found in Blood and Urine. Biomedicines 2022; 10:biomedicines10030621. [PMID: 35327423 PMCID: PMC8945529 DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines10030621] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2022] [Revised: 03/01/2022] [Accepted: 03/04/2022] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Biomarkers can potentially help in the detection and prognosis of diseases such as cancer, its recurrence, predicting response to therapy, and monitoring of response during and/or after treatment. Endogenous tumor blood biomarkers suffer from low concentrations that are not distinguishable from background noise and, if identified, the localization of the biomarker production site is not known. The use of exogenously introduced or artificial biomarkers can eliminate these issues. In this study, we show that cancer cells can be made to produce an artificial secreted microRNA (Sec-miR) that can be detected in media from cells in culture, and from both blood and urine in living mice. In culture, we show that chaining a number of Sec-miR sequences in a plasmid and transfecting cells with the plasmids could increase Sec-miR secretion as the number of sequences increases. Tumor induction in mice with a stably transfected HeLa cell line shows the presence and significant increase in the Sec-miR with time and tumor growth in plasma (p < 0.001, R2 = 0.5542). The relative half-life of the Sec-miR was seen to be 1.2 h in the plasma of living mice and was seen to appear in urine within 12 h. The transgene for the Sec-miR within a minicircle was introduced via the tail-vein into subcutaneous tumor-bearing mice. As the tumor growth increased with time, further in vivo transfection of the Sec-miR minicircles showed an increase in Sec-miR in both plasma and urine (R2 = 0.4546). This study demonstrated that an exogenous Sec-miR biomarker would allow for early tumor detection using in vitro diagnostics techniques.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pei-Wei Shueng
- Division of Radiation Oncology, Department of Radiology, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, New Taipei 220, Taiwan;
- School of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei 112, Taiwan
| | - Kuang-Chung Shih
- Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Medicine, Cheng-Hsin General Hospital, Taipei 112, Taiwan;
| | - Sanjiv Sam Gambhir
- Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
- Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Deng-Yu Kuo
- Division of Radiation Oncology, Department of Radiology, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, New Taipei 220, Taiwan;
- Correspondence: (D.-Y.K.); (H.-Y.C.); Tel.: +886-2-7728-1033 (D.-Y.K.); +886-2-2826-7241 (H.-Y.C.); Fax: +886-2-7728-2367 (D.-Y.K.); +886-2-2820-1095 (H.-Y.C.)
| | - Hui-Yen Chuang
- Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
- Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei 112, Taiwan
- Correspondence: (D.-Y.K.); (H.-Y.C.); Tel.: +886-2-7728-1033 (D.-Y.K.); +886-2-2826-7241 (H.-Y.C.); Fax: +886-2-7728-2367 (D.-Y.K.); +886-2-2820-1095 (H.-Y.C.)
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10
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Yaari Z, Horoszko CP, Antman-Passig M, Kim M, Nguyen FT, Heller DA. Emerging technologies in cancer detection. Cancer Biomark 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-12-824302-2.00011-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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11
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Hao L, Rohani N, Zhao RT, Pulver EM, Mak H, Kelada OJ, Ko H, Fleming HE, Gertler FB, Bhatia SN. Microenvironment-triggered multimodal precision diagnostics. NATURE MATERIALS 2021; 20:1440-1448. [PMID: 34267368 DOI: 10.1038/s41563-021-01042-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2019] [Accepted: 05/26/2021] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Therapeutic outcomes in oncology may be aided by precision diagnostics that offer early detection, localization and the opportunity to monitor response to therapy. Here, we report a multimodal nanosensor engineered to target tumours through acidosis, respond to proteases in the microenvironment to release urinary reporters and (optionally) carry positron emission tomography probes to enable localization of primary and metastatic cancers in mouse models of colorectal cancer. We present a paradigm wherein this multimodal sensor can be employed longitudinally to assess burden of disease non-invasively, including tumour progression and response to chemotherapy. Specifically, we showed that acidosis-mediated tumour insertion enhanced on-target release of matrix metalloproteinase-responsive reporters in urine. Subsequent on-demand loading of the radiotracer 64Cu allowed pH-dependent tumour visualization, enabling enriched microenvironmental characterization when compared with the conventional metabolic tracer 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose. Through tailored target specificities, this modular platform has the capacity to be engineered as a pan-cancer test that may guide treatment decisions for numerous tumour types.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liangliang Hao
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Nazanin Rohani
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Renee T Zhao
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Emilia M Pulver
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Howard Mak
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | | | - Henry Ko
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Heather E Fleming
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Frank B Gertler
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Sangeeta N Bhatia
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
- Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Ludwig Center at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Cambridge, MA, USA.
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12
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Kwong GA, Ghosh S, Gamboa L, Patriotis C, Srivastava S, Bhatia SN. Synthetic biomarkers: a twenty-first century path to early cancer detection. Nat Rev Cancer 2021; 21:655-668. [PMID: 34489588 PMCID: PMC8791024 DOI: 10.1038/s41568-021-00389-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 72] [Impact Index Per Article: 24.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/14/2021] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
Detection of cancer at an early stage when it is still localized improves patient response to medical interventions for most cancer types. The success of screening tools such as cervical cytology to reduce mortality has spurred significant interest in new methods for early detection (for example, using non-invasive blood-based or biofluid-based biomarkers). Yet biomarkers shed from early lesions are limited by fundamental biological and mass transport barriers - such as short circulation times and blood dilution - that limit early detection. To address this issue, synthetic biomarkers are being developed. These represent an emerging class of diagnostics that deploy bioengineered sensors inside the body to query early-stage tumours and amplify disease signals to levels that could potentially exceed those of shed biomarkers. These strategies leverage design principles and advances from chemistry, synthetic biology and cell engineering. In this Review, we discuss the rationale for development of biofluid-based synthetic biomarkers. We examine how these strategies harness dysregulated features of tumours to amplify detection signals, use tumour-selective activation to increase specificity and leverage natural processing of bodily fluids (for example, blood, urine and proximal fluids) for easy detection. Finally, we highlight the challenges that exist for preclinical development and clinical translation of synthetic biomarker diagnostics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gabriel A Kwong
- Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
- Parker H. Petit Institute of Bioengineering and Bioscience, Atlanta, GA, USA.
- Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA, USA.
- The Georgia Immunoengineering Consortium, Emory University and Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA, USA.
- Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
| | - Sharmistha Ghosh
- Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
| | - Lena Gamboa
- Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Christos Patriotis
- Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Sudhir Srivastava
- Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
| | - Sangeeta N Bhatia
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD, USA.
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13
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He J, Nissim L, Soleimany AP, Binder-Nissim A, Fleming HE, Lu TK, Bhatia SN. Synthetic Circuit-Driven Expression of Heterologous Enzymes for Disease Detection. ACS Synth Biol 2021; 10:2231-2242. [PMID: 34464083 DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.1c00133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
The integration of nanotechnology and synthetic biology could lay the framework for new classes of engineered biosensors that produce amplified readouts of disease states. As a proof-of-concept demonstration of this vision, here we present an engineered gene circuit that, in response to cancer-associated transcriptional deregulation, expresses heterologous enzyme biomarkers whose activity can be measured by nanoparticle sensors that generate amplified detection readouts. Specifically, we designed an AND-gate gene circuit that integrates the activity of two ovarian cancer-specific synthetic promoters to drive the expression of a heterologous protein output, secreted Tobacco Etch Virus (TEV) protease, exclusively from within tumor cells. Nanoparticle probes were engineered to carry a TEV-specific peptide substrate in order to measure the activity of the circuit-generated enzyme to yield amplified detection signals measurable in the urine or blood. We applied our integrated sense-and-respond system in a mouse model of disseminated ovarian cancer, where we demonstrated measurement of circuit-specific TEV protease activity both in vivo using exogenously administered nanoparticle sensors and ex vivo using quenched fluorescent probes. We envision that this work will lay the foundation for how synthetic biology and nanotechnology can be meaningfully integrated to achieve next-generation engineered biosensors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiang He
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
- Harvard−MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Lior Nissim
- Synthetic Biology Group, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada, Hadassah Medical School, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91120, Israel
| | - Ava P. Soleimany
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
- Harvard−MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
- Harvard Graduate Program in Biophysics, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
- Microsoft Research New England, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, United States
| | - Adina Binder-Nissim
- Synthetic Biology Group, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
- Department of Family Medicine, Meuhedet Health Maintenance Organization, Tel Aviv 62038, Israel
| | - Heather E. Fleming
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
- Harvard−MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Timothy K. Lu
- Synthetic Biology Group, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Sangeeta N. Bhatia
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
- Harvard−MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
- Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
- Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
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14
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Robinson ER, Gowrishankar G, D'Souza AL, Kheirolomoom A, Haywood T, Hori SS, Chuang HY, Zeng Y, Tumbale SK, Aalipour A, Beinat C, Alam IS, Sathirachinda A, Kanada M, Paulmurugan R, Ferrara KW, Gambhir SS. Minicircles for a two-step blood biomarker and PET imaging early cancer detection strategy. J Control Release 2021; 335:281-289. [PMID: 34029631 DOI: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2021.05.026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2021] [Revised: 04/29/2021] [Accepted: 05/19/2021] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Early cancer detection can dramatically increase treatment options and survival rates for patients, yet detection of early-stage tumors remains difficult. Here, we demonstrate a two-step strategy to detect and locate cancerous lesions by delivering tumor-activatable minicircle (MC) plasmids encoding a combination of blood-based and imaging reporter genes to tumor cells. We genetically engineered the MCs, under the control of the pan-tumor-specific Survivin promoter, to encode: 1) Gaussia Luciferase (GLuc), a secreted biomarker that can be easily assayed in blood samples; and 2) Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Thymidine Kinase mutant (HSV-1 sr39TK), a PET reporter gene that can be used for highly sensitive and quantitative imaging of the tumor location. We evaluated two methods of MC delivery, complexing the MCs with the chemical transfection reagent jetPEI or encapsulating the MCs in extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from a human cervical cancer HeLa cell line. MCs delivered by EVs or jetPEI yielded significant expression of the reporter genes in cell culture versus MCs delivered without a transfection reagent. Secreted GLuc correlated with HSV-1 sr39TK expression with R2 = 0.9676. MC complexation with jetPEI delivered a larger mass of MC for enhanced transfection, which was crucial for in vivo animal studies, where delivery of MCs via jetPEI resulted in GLuc and HSV-1 sr39TK expression at significantly higher levels than controls. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of the PET reporter gene HSV-1 sr39TK delivered via a tumor-activatable MC to tumor cells for an early cancer detection strategy. This work explores solutions to endogenous blood-based biomarker and molecular imaging limitations of early cancer detection strategies and elucidates the delivery capabilities and limitations of EVs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elise R Robinson
- Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Department of Radiology, Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Gayatri Gowrishankar
- Department of Radiology, Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Aloma L D'Souza
- Department of Radiology, Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Azadeh Kheirolomoom
- Department of Radiology, Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Tom Haywood
- Department of Radiology, Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Sharon S Hori
- Department of Radiology, Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Canary Center at Stanford for Cancer Early Detection, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA
| | - Hui-Yen Chuang
- Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, National Yang Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Yitian Zeng
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Spencer K Tumbale
- Department of Radiology, Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Amin Aalipour
- Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Department of Radiology, Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Corinne Beinat
- Department of Radiology, Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Israt S Alam
- Department of Radiology, Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Ataya Sathirachinda
- Department of Radiology, Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Masamitsu Kanada
- Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering (IQ), Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824., USA
| | - Ramasamy Paulmurugan
- Department of Radiology, Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Canary Center at Stanford for Cancer Early Detection, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA
| | - Katherine W Ferrara
- Department of Radiology, Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Canary Center at Stanford for Cancer Early Detection, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA.
| | - Sanjiv S Gambhir
- Department of Radiology, Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Canary Center at Stanford for Cancer Early Detection, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA
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15
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Pyne ALB, Noy A, Main KHS, Velasco-Berrelleza V, Piperakis MM, Mitchenall LA, Cugliandolo FM, Beton JG, Stevenson CEM, Hoogenboom BW, Bates AD, Maxwell A, Harris SA. Base-pair resolution analysis of the effect of supercoiling on DNA flexibility and major groove recognition by triplex-forming oligonucleotides. Nat Commun 2021; 12:1053. [PMID: 33594049 PMCID: PMC7887228 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21243-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 64] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2020] [Accepted: 01/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
In the cell, DNA is arranged into highly-organised and topologically-constrained (supercoiled) structures. It remains unclear how this supercoiling affects the detailed double-helical structure of DNA, largely because of limitations in spatial resolution of the available biophysical tools. Here, we overcome these limitations, by a combination of atomic force microscopy (AFM) and atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, to resolve structures of negatively-supercoiled DNA minicircles at base-pair resolution. We observe that negative superhelical stress induces local variation in the canonical B-form DNA structure by introducing kinks and defects that affect global minicircle structure and flexibility. We probe how these local and global conformational changes affect DNA interactions through the binding of triplex-forming oligonucleotides to DNA minicircles. We show that the energetics of triplex formation is governed by a delicate balance between electrostatics and bonding interactions. Our results provide mechanistic insight into how DNA supercoiling can affect molecular recognition, that may have broader implications for DNA interactions with other molecular species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alice L B Pyne
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
- London Centre for Nanotechnology, University College London, London, UK.
| | - Agnes Noy
- Department of Physics, Biological Physical Sciences Institute, University of York, York, UK.
| | - Kavit H S Main
- London Centre for Nanotechnology, University College London, London, UK
- UCL Cancer Institute, University College London, London, UK
| | | | - Michael M Piperakis
- Department of Biological Chemistry, John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK
- Department of Chemistry, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, UK
| | | | - Fiorella M Cugliandolo
- Department of Biological Chemistry, John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK
- Department of Pathology, Division of Immunology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Joseph G Beton
- London Centre for Nanotechnology, University College London, London, UK
- Department of Crystallography, Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK
| | | | - Bart W Hoogenboom
- London Centre for Nanotechnology, University College London, London, UK
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, London, UK
| | - Andrew D Bates
- Institute of Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
| | - Anthony Maxwell
- Department of Biological Chemistry, John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK
| | - Sarah A Harris
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
- Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
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16
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Wang T, Chen Y, Goodale D, Allan AL, Ronald JA. A survivin-driven, tumor-activatable minicircle system for prostate cancer theranostics. MOLECULAR THERAPY-ONCOLYTICS 2021; 20:209-219. [PMID: 33665359 PMCID: PMC7889447 DOI: 10.1016/j.omto.2021.01.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2020] [Accepted: 01/13/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Gene vectors regulated by tumor-specific promoters to express transgenes specifically in cancer cells are an emerging approach for cancer diagnosis and treatment. Minicircles are shortened plasmids stripped of prokaryotic sequences that have potency and safety characteristics beneficial for clinical translation. Previously, we developed minicircles driven by the tumor-specific survivin promoter, which exhibits elevated transcriptional activity in aggressive cancers, to express a secreted reporter for blood-based cancer detection. Here we present the first activatable, cancer theranostic minicircle system featuring a pair of diagnostic and therapeutic minicircles expressing Gaussia luciferase for urine-based cancer detection or cytosine deaminase:uracil phosphoribosyltransferase for gene-directed enzyme prodrug therapy. Diagnostic minicircles revealed urinary reporter output related to cellular survivin levels. Notably, mice with aggressive prostate tumors exhibited significantly higher urine reporter activity than mice with non-aggressive tumors and healthy mice after intratumoral minicircle administration. Therapeutic minicircles displayed specific cytotoxicity in survivin-rich cancer cells and significantly attenuated growth of aggressive orthotopic prostate tumors in mice. Use of these minicircles together creates a theranostic system that can first identify individuals carrying aggressive prostate cancer via a urinary test, followed by stringent control of tumor progression in stratified individuals who carry high-risk prostate lesions.
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Affiliation(s)
- TianDuo Wang
- Department of Medical Biophysics, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University, London, ON N6A 5B7, Canada.,Robarts Research Institute - Imaging Research Laboratories, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada
| | - Yuanxin Chen
- Robarts Research Institute - Imaging Research Laboratories, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada
| | - David Goodale
- London Regional Cancer Program, London Health Science Centre, London, ON N6C 2R5, Canada
| | - Alison L Allan
- Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University, London, ON N6A 5B7, Canada.,Department of Oncology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University, London, ON N6A 5B7, Canada.,London Regional Cancer Program, London Health Science Centre, London, ON N6C 2R5, Canada.,Lawson Health Research Institute, London, ON N6C 2R5, Canada
| | - John A Ronald
- Department of Medical Biophysics, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University, London, ON N6A 5B7, Canada.,Robarts Research Institute - Imaging Research Laboratories, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada.,Lawson Health Research Institute, London, ON N6C 2R5, Canada
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17
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Soleimany AP, Bhatia SN. Activity-Based Diagnostics: An Emerging Paradigm for Disease Detection and Monitoring. Trends Mol Med 2020; 26:450-468. [PMID: 32359477 DOI: 10.1016/j.molmed.2020.01.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2019] [Revised: 01/20/2020] [Accepted: 01/28/2020] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Diagnostics to accurately detect disease and monitor therapeutic response are essential for effective clinical management. Bioengineering, chemical biology, molecular biology, and computer science tools are converging to guide the design of diagnostics that leverage enzymatic activity to measure or produce biomarkers of disease. We review recent advances in the development of these 'activity-based diagnostics' (ABDx) and their application in infectious and noncommunicable diseases. We highlight efforts towards both molecular probes that respond to disease-specific catalytic activity to produce a diagnostic readout, as well as diagnostics that use enzymes as an engineered component of their sense-and-respond cascade. These technologies exemplify how integrating techniques from multiple disciplines with preclinical validation has enabled ABDx that may realize the goals of precision medicine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ava P Soleimany
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA; Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA; Harvard Graduate Program in Biophysics, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Sangeeta N Bhatia
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA; Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA; Wyss Institute at Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA.
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18
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Kwong GA. Macrophage Sensors for Early Cancer Detection. Clin Chem 2020; 66:268-270. [PMID: 32040571 DOI: 10.1093/clinchem/hvz017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2019] [Accepted: 11/19/2019] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Gabriel A Kwong
- The Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology & Emory University, Atlanta, GA
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19
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Kanada M, Kim BD, Hardy JW, Ronald JA, Bachmann MH, Bernard MP, Perez GI, Zarea AA, Ge TJ, Withrow A, Ibrahim SA, Toomajian V, Gambhir SS, Paulmurugan R, Contag CH. Microvesicle-Mediated Delivery of Minicircle DNA Results in Effective Gene-Directed Enzyme Prodrug Cancer Therapy. Mol Cancer Ther 2019; 18:2331-2342. [PMID: 31451563 DOI: 10.1158/1535-7163.mct-19-0299] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2019] [Revised: 06/13/2019] [Accepted: 08/14/2019] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
An emerging approach for cancer treatment employs the use of extracellular vesicles, specifically exosomes and microvesicles, as delivery vehicles. We previously demonstrated that microvesicles can functionally deliver plasmid DNA to cells and showed that plasmid size and sequence, in part, determine the delivery efficiency. In this study, delivery vehicles comprised of microvesicles loaded with engineered minicircle (MC) DNA that encodes prodrug converting enzymes developed as a cancer therapy in mammary carcinoma models. We demonstrated that MCs can be loaded into shed microvesicles with greater efficiency than their parental plasmid counterparts and that microvesicle-mediated MC delivery led to significantly higher and more prolonged transgene expression in recipient cells than microvesicles loaded with the parental plasmid. Microvesicles loaded with MCs encoding a thymidine kinase (TK)/nitroreductase (NTR) fusion protein produced prolonged TK-NTR expression in mammary carcinoma cells. In vivo delivery of TK-NTR and administration of prodrugs led to the effective killing of both targeted cells and surrounding tumor cells via TK-NTR-mediated conversion of codelivered prodrugs into active cytotoxic agents. In vivo evaluation of the bystander effect in mouse models demonstrated that for effective therapy, at least 1% of tumor cells need to be delivered with TK-NTR-encoding MCs. These results suggest that MC delivery via microvesicles can mediate gene transfer to an extent that enables effective prodrug conversion and tumor cell death such that it comprises a promising approach to cancer therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Masamitsu Kanada
- Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University, Stanford, California. .,Department of Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University, Stanford, California.,Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.,Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering (IQ), Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
| | - Bryan D Kim
- Deptartment of Chemistry, University of California, Santa Cruz, California
| | - Jonathan W Hardy
- Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University, Stanford, California.,Department of Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University, Stanford, California.,Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering (IQ), Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.,Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
| | - John A Ronald
- Department of Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University, Stanford, California.,Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, California.,Robarts Research Institute, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.,Lawson Health Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - Michael H Bachmann
- Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University, Stanford, California.,Department of Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University, Stanford, California.,Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering (IQ), Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.,Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
| | - Matthew P Bernard
- Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.,Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering (IQ), Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
| | - Gloria I Perez
- Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering (IQ), Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
| | - Ahmed A Zarea
- Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering (IQ), Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
| | - T Jessie Ge
- Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, California
| | - Alicia Withrow
- Center for Advanced Microscopy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
| | - Sherif A Ibrahim
- Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering (IQ), Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.,Deptartment of Histology and Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt
| | - Victoria Toomajian
- Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering (IQ), Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.,Department of Biomedical Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
| | - Sanjiv S Gambhir
- Department of Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University, Stanford, California.,Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, California.,Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California.,Department of Materials Science, Stanford University, Stanford, California
| | - Ramasamy Paulmurugan
- Department of Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University, Stanford, California. .,Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, California
| | - Christopher H Contag
- Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University, Stanford, California. .,Department of Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University, Stanford, California.,Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering (IQ), Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.,Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.,Department of Biomedical Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
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20
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Aalipour A, Chuang HY, Murty S, D'Souza AL, Park SM, Gulati GS, Patel CB, Beinat C, Simonetta F, Martinić I, Gowrishankar G, Robinson ER, Aalipour E, Zhian Z, Gambhir SS. Engineered immune cells as highly sensitive cancer diagnostics. Nat Biotechnol 2019; 37:531-539. [PMID: 30886438 PMCID: PMC7295609 DOI: 10.1038/s41587-019-0064-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 88] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2018] [Accepted: 02/04/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Endogenous biomarkers remain at the forefront of early disease detection efforts, but many lack the sensitivities and specificities necessary to influence disease management. Here, we describe a cell-based in vivo sensor for highly sensitive early cancer detection. We engineer macrophages to produce a synthetic reporter on adopting an M2 tumor-associated metabolic profile by coupling luciferase expression to activation of the arginase-1 promoter. After adoptive transfer in colorectal and breast mouse tumor models, the engineered macrophages migrated to the tumors and activated arginase-1 so that they could be detected by bioluminescence imaging and luciferase measured in the blood. The macrophage sensor detected tumors as small as 25-50 mm3 by blood luciferase measurements, even in the presence of concomitant inflammation, and was more sensitive than clinically used protein and nucleic acid cancer biomarkers. Macrophage sensors also effectively tracked the immunological response in muscle and lung models of inflammation, suggesting the potential utility of this approach in disease states other than cancer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amin Aalipour
- Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Hui-Yen Chuang
- Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Surya Murty
- Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Aloma L D'Souza
- Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Seung-Min Park
- Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Gunsagar S Gulati
- Department of Cancer Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Chirag B Patel
- Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Corinne Beinat
- Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Federico Simonetta
- Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Ivana Martinić
- Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Gayatri Gowrishankar
- Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Elise R Robinson
- Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Eamon Aalipour
- Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Zahra Zhian
- Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Sanjiv S Gambhir
- Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
- Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
- Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
- Canary Center at Stanford for Cancer Early Detection, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
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21
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Cui X, Fang N, Cui Y, Xiao D, Wang X. Long non-coding RNA NEF inhibits proliferation and promotes apoptosis of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma cells by inhibiting Wnt/β-catenin signaling. Oncol Lett 2019; 17:4928-4934. [PMID: 31186702 PMCID: PMC6507471 DOI: 10.3892/ol.2019.10150] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2018] [Accepted: 01/25/2019] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
The present study aimed to investigate the involvement of the recently identified long non-coding RNA neighboring enhancer of FOXA2 (lncRNA NEF) in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC). In this study, the expression levels of lncRNA NEF in tumor tissues and paired adjacent normal tissues were detected by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Serum levels of NEF in patients with LSCC and healthy controls were also measured using RT-qPCR. Clinical and follow-up data of patients with LSCC were retrospectively analyzed. Diagnostic and prognostic values of serum NEF were evaluated by receiver operating characteristic curve and survival curve analysis, respectively. In addition, a NEF expression vector was constructed and transfected into human LSCC cells. The effects of NEF overexpression on cell proliferation, apoptosis and β-catenin expression were explored by Cell Counting kit-8 cell proliferation assay, MTT assay and western blotting. NEF was significantly downregulated in tumor tissues compared with in paired adjacent normal tissues of patients with LSCC. Serum levels of NEF were significantly lower in patients with LSCC than in healthy controls. Low serum levels of NEF distinguished patients with LSCC from healthy controls, and also indicated shorter postoperative survival. NEF overexpression inhibited proliferation and promoted apoptosis of LSCC cells, and also downregulated β-catenin expression. No significant effects of Wnt agonist on NEF expression were identified; however, Wnt agonist reduced the effects of NEF overexpression on cancer cell proliferation and apoptosis. In conclusion, lncRNA NEF may inhibit proliferation and promote apoptosis of LSCC cells by inhibiting Wnt/β-catenin signaling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiangyan Cui
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130021, P.R. China
| | - Ning Fang
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130021, P.R. China
| | - Yu Cui
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130021, P.R. China
| | - Dong Xiao
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130021, P.R. China
| | - Xin Wang
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130021, P.R. China
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22
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A novel approach for assessment of prostate cancer aggressiveness using survivin-driven tumour-activatable minicircles. Gene Ther 2019; 26:177-186. [PMID: 30867586 DOI: 10.1038/s41434-019-0067-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2018] [Revised: 01/15/2019] [Accepted: 01/30/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Early and accurate detection of cancer is essential to optimising patient outcomes. Of particular importance to prostate cancer is the ability to determine the aggressiveness of a primary tumour, which allows for effective management of patient care. In this work, we propose using gene vectors called tumour-activatable minicircles which deliver an exogenously encoded reporter gene into cancer cells, forcing them to produce a unique and sensitive biomarker. These minicircles express a blood reporter protein called secreted embryonic alkaline phosphatase mediated by the tumour-specific survivin promoter, which exhibits activity graded to prostate cancer aggressiveness. Together, these components underlie a detection system where levels of blood reporter are indicative of not only the presence, but also the metastatic potential of a tumour. Our goal was to assess the ability of tumour-activatable minicircles to detect and characterise primary prostate lesions. Our minicircles produced reporter levels related to survivin expression across a range of prostate cancer cell lines. When survivin-driven minicircles were administered intratumourally into mice, reporter levels in blood samples were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in mice carrying prostate tumours of high versus low-aggressiveness. Continued development of this gene-based system could provide clinicians with a powerful tool to evaluate prostate cancer aggressiveness using a sensitive and affordable blood assay.
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23
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Prato FS, Pavlosky WF, Foster SC, Thiessen JD, Beaujot RP. Screening for Dementia Caused by Modifiable Lifestyle Choices Using Hybrid PET/MRI. J Alzheimers Dis Rep 2019; 3:31-45. [PMID: 30842996 PMCID: PMC6400112 DOI: 10.3233/adr-180098] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/19/2018] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Significant advances in positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain imaging in the early detection of dementia indicate that hybrid PET/MRI would be an effective tool to screen for dementia in the population living with lifestyle risk factors. Here we investigate the associated costs and benefits along with the needed imaging infrastructure. A demographic analysis determined the prevalence of dementia and its incidence. The expected value of the screening program was calculated assuming a sensitivity and specificity of 0.9, a prevalence of 0.1, a QALY factor of 0.348, a willingness to pay $114,000 CAD and the cost per PET/MRI scan of $2,000 CAD. It was assumed that each head PET/MRI could screen 3,000 individuals per year. The prevalence of dementia is increasing by almost two-fold every 20 years due to the increased population at ages where dementia is more prevalent. It has been shown that a five-year delay in the incidence of dementia would decrease the prevalence by some 45%. In Canada, a five-year delay corresponds to a health care savings of $27,000 CAD per subject per year. The expected value for screening was estimated at $23,745 CAD. The number of subjects to be screened per year in Canada, USA, and China between 60 and 79 was 11,405,000. The corresponding number of head-only hybrid PET/MRI systems needed is 3,800. A brain PET/MRI screening program is financially justifiable with respect to health care costs and justifies the continuing development of MRI compatible brain PET technology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frank S. Prato
- Department of Medical Biophysics, Western University, London, ON, Canada
- Lawson Health Research Institute, London, ON, Canada
- Department of Medical Imaging, Western University, London, ON, Canada
| | - William F. Pavlosky
- Lawson Health Research Institute, London, ON, Canada
- Department of Medical Imaging, Western University, London, ON, Canada
| | | | - Jonathan D. Thiessen
- Department of Medical Biophysics, Western University, London, ON, Canada
- Lawson Health Research Institute, London, ON, Canada
- Department of Medical Imaging, Western University, London, ON, Canada
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24
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Universal cancer screening: revolutionary, rational, and realizable. NPJ Precis Oncol 2018; 2:23. [PMID: 30393772 PMCID: PMC6206005 DOI: 10.1038/s41698-018-0066-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 65] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2018] [Revised: 08/14/2018] [Accepted: 08/16/2018] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Cancer remains the second leading cause of mortality worldwide, and overall cancer-related deaths are increasing. Despite the survival benefit from early detection, screening has to date targeted only those few organs that harbor tumors of sufficient prevalence to show cost-effectiveness at population levels, leaving most cancer types unscreened. In this perspective overview, a case is made for universal cancer screening as a logical and more inclusive approach with potentially high impact. The centrally important conceptual drivers to universal screening are biological and epidemiological. The shared biology of tumor marker release into a common distant medium, like blood, can be exploited for multi-cancer detection from a single test. And, by aggregating prevalence rates, universal screening allows all cancers (including less common ones) to be included as targets, increases screening efficiency and integration across tumor types, and potentially improves cost-effectiveness over single-organ approaches. The identification of new tumor marker classes with both broad expression across tumor types and site-prediction, remarkable advances in assay technologies, and compelling early clinical data increase the likelihood of actualizing this new paradigm. Multi-organ screening could be achieved by targeting markers within or stemming from the circulation (including blood, urine, saliva, and expired breath) or those exfoliated into common excretory pathways (including the gastrointestinal and female reproductive tracts). Rigorous clinical studies in intended use populations and collaborations between academia, industry, professional societies, and government will be required to bring this lofty vision to a population application.
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25
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Wang X, Kawabe Y, Hada T, Ito A, Kamihira M. Cre-Mediated Transgene Integration in Chinese Hamster Ovary Cells Using Minicircle DNA Vectors. Biotechnol J 2018; 13:e1800063. [DOI: 10.1002/biot.201800063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2018] [Revised: 03/26/2018] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Xue Wang
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University; 744 Motooka Nishi-ku, 819-0395 Japan
| | - Yoshinori Kawabe
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University; 744 Motooka Nishi-ku, 819-0395 Japan
| | - Takeshi Hada
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University; 744 Motooka Nishi-ku, 819-0395 Japan
| | - Akira Ito
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University; 744 Motooka Nishi-ku, 819-0395 Japan
| | - Masamichi Kamihira
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University; 744 Motooka Nishi-ku, 819-0395 Japan
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26
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Li SYT, Yan M, Chen H, Jesus T, Lee WM, Xiao X, Cheng CY. mTORC1/rpS6 regulates blood-testis barrier dynamics and spermatogenetic function in the testis in vivo. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 2018; 314:E174-E190. [PMID: 29089336 PMCID: PMC5866417 DOI: 10.1152/ajpendo.00263.2017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2017] [Revised: 10/02/2017] [Accepted: 10/23/2017] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
The blood-testis barrier (BTB), conferred by Sertoli cells in the mammalian testis, is an important ultrastructure that supports spermatogenesis. Studies using animal models have shown that a disruption of the BTB leads to meiotic arrest, causing defects in spermatogenesis and male infertility. To better understand the regulation of BTB dynamics, we report findings herein to understand the role of ribosomal protein S6 (rpS6), a downstream signaling protein of mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1), in promoting BTB disruption in the testis in vivo, making the barrier "leaky." Overexpression of wild-type rpS6 (rpS6-WT, the full-length cDNA cloned into the mammalian expression vector pCI-neo) and a constitutively active quadruple phosphomimetic mutant cloned into pCI-neo (p-rpS6-MT) vs. control (empty pCI-neo vector) was achieved by transfecting adult rat testes with the corresponding plasmid DNA using a Polyplus in vivo-jetPEI transfection reagent. On the basis of an in vivo functional BTB integrity assay, p-rpS6-MT was found to induce BTB disruption better than rpS6-WT did (and no effects in empty vector control), leading to defects in spermatogenesis, including loss of spermatid polarity and failure in the transport of cells (e.g., spermatids) and organelles (e.g., phagosomes), to be followed by germ exfoliation. More important, rpS6-WT and p-rpS6-MT exert their disruptive effects through changes in the organization of actin- and microtubule (MT)-based cytoskeletons, which are mediated by changes in the spatiotemporal expression of actin- and MT-based binding and regulatory proteins. In short, mTORC1/rpS6 signaling complex is a regulator of spermatogenesis and BTB by modulating the organization of the actin- and MT-based cytoskeletons.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen Y T Li
- The Mary M. Wohlford Laboratory for Male Contraceptive Research, Center for Biomedical Research, Population Council , New York, New York
| | - Ming Yan
- The Mary M. Wohlford Laboratory for Male Contraceptive Research, Center for Biomedical Research, Population Council , New York, New York
- Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Drug Screening, China Pharmaceutical University , Nanjing , China
| | - Haiqi Chen
- The Mary M. Wohlford Laboratory for Male Contraceptive Research, Center for Biomedical Research, Population Council , New York, New York
| | - Tito Jesus
- The Mary M. Wohlford Laboratory for Male Contraceptive Research, Center for Biomedical Research, Population Council , New York, New York
| | - Will M Lee
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Xiang Xiao
- Department of Reproductive Physiology, Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences , Hangzhou , China
| | - C Yan Cheng
- The Mary M. Wohlford Laboratory for Male Contraceptive Research, Center for Biomedical Research, Population Council , New York, New York
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27
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Holstein M, Mesa-Nuñez C, Miskey C, Almarza E, Poletti V, Schmeer M, Grueso E, Ordóñez Flores JC, Kobelt D, Walther W, Aneja MK, Geiger J, Bonig HB, Izsvák Z, Schleef M, Rudolph C, Mavilio F, Bueren JA, Guenechea G, Ivics Z. Efficient Non-viral Gene Delivery into Human Hematopoietic Stem Cells by Minicircle Sleeping Beauty Transposon Vectors. Mol Ther 2018; 26:1137-1153. [PMID: 29503198 PMCID: PMC6079369 DOI: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2018.01.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2017] [Revised: 01/08/2018] [Accepted: 01/12/2018] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
The Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon system is a non-viral gene delivery platform that combines simplicity, inexpensive manufacture, and favorable safety features in the context of human applications. However, efficient correction of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) with non-viral vector systems, including SB, demands further refinement of gene delivery techniques. We set out to improve SB gene transfer into hard-to-transfect human CD34+ cells by vectorizing the SB system components in the form of minicircles that are devoid of plasmid backbone sequences and are, therefore, significantly reduced in size. As compared to conventional plasmids, delivery of the SB transposon system as minicircle DNA is ∼20 times more efficient, and it is associated with up to a 50% reduction in cellular toxicity in human CD34+ cells. Moreover, providing the SB transposase in the form of synthetic mRNA enabled us to further increase the efficacy and biosafety of stable gene delivery into hematopoietic progenitors ex vivo. Genome-wide insertion site profiling revealed a close-to-random distribution of SB transposon integrants, which is characteristically different from gammaretroviral and lentiviral integrations in HSPCs. Transplantation of gene-marked CD34+ cells in immunodeficient mice resulted in long-term engraftment and hematopoietic reconstitution, which was most efficient when the SB transposase was supplied as mRNA and nucleofected cells were maintained for 4–8 days in culture before transplantation. Collectively, implementation of minicircle and mRNA technologies allowed us to further refine the SB transposon system in the context of HSPC gene delivery to ultimately meet clinical demands of an efficient and safe non-viral gene therapy protocol.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marta Holstein
- Transposition and Genome Engineering, Division of Medical Biotechnology, Paul Ehrlich Institute, Langen, Germany
| | - Cristina Mesa-Nuñez
- Division of Hematopoietic Innovative Therapies, Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas Medioambientales y Tecnológicas and Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Raras (CIEMAT/CIBERER), Madrid, Spain; Advanced Therapies Unit, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Fundación Jiménez Díaz (IIS-FJD, UAM) Madrid, Spain
| | - Csaba Miskey
- Transposition and Genome Engineering, Division of Medical Biotechnology, Paul Ehrlich Institute, Langen, Germany
| | - Elena Almarza
- Division of Hematopoietic Innovative Therapies, Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas Medioambientales y Tecnológicas and Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Raras (CIEMAT/CIBERER), Madrid, Spain; Advanced Therapies Unit, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Fundación Jiménez Díaz (IIS-FJD, UAM) Madrid, Spain
| | | | | | - Esther Grueso
- Transposition and Genome Engineering, Division of Medical Biotechnology, Paul Ehrlich Institute, Langen, Germany
| | - Juan Carlos Ordóñez Flores
- Transposition and Genome Engineering, Division of Medical Biotechnology, Paul Ehrlich Institute, Langen, Germany
| | - Dennis Kobelt
- Translational Oncology, Experimental and Clinical Research Center, Charité University Medicine, Berlin, Germany
| | - Wolfgang Walther
- Translational Oncology, Experimental and Clinical Research Center, Charité University Medicine, Berlin, Germany
| | | | | | - Halvard B Bonig
- Department of Transfusion Medicine and Immunohematology, Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe Universität, Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Zsuzsanna Izsvák
- Mobile DNA, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), Berlin, Germany
| | | | - Carsten Rudolph
- ethris GmbH, Planegg, Germany; Department of Pediatrics, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany
| | - Fulvio Mavilio
- Genethon, Evry, France; Department of Life Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
| | - Juan A Bueren
- Division of Hematopoietic Innovative Therapies, Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas Medioambientales y Tecnológicas and Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Raras (CIEMAT/CIBERER), Madrid, Spain; Advanced Therapies Unit, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Fundación Jiménez Díaz (IIS-FJD, UAM) Madrid, Spain
| | - Guillermo Guenechea
- Division of Hematopoietic Innovative Therapies, Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas Medioambientales y Tecnológicas and Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Raras (CIEMAT/CIBERER), Madrid, Spain; Advanced Therapies Unit, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Fundación Jiménez Díaz (IIS-FJD, UAM) Madrid, Spain
| | - Zoltán Ivics
- Transposition and Genome Engineering, Division of Medical Biotechnology, Paul Ehrlich Institute, Langen, Germany.
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29
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Park SM, Aalipour A, Vermesh O, Yu JH, Gambhir SS. Towards clinically translatable in vivo nanodiagnostics. NATURE REVIEWS. MATERIALS 2017; 2:17014. [PMID: 29876137 PMCID: PMC5985817 DOI: 10.1038/natrevmats.2017.14] [Citation(s) in RCA: 211] [Impact Index Per Article: 30.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
Nanodiagnostics as a field makes use of fundamental advances in nanobiotechnology to diagnose, characterize and manage disease at the molecular scale. As these strategies move closer to routine clinical use, a proper understanding of different imaging modalities, relevant biological systems and physical properties governing nanoscale interactions is necessary to rationally engineer next-generation bionanomaterials. In this Review, we analyse the background physics of several clinically relevant imaging modalities and their associated sensitivity and specificity, provide an overview of the materials currently used for in vivo nanodiagnostics, and assess the progress made towards clinical translation. This work provides a framework for understanding both the impressive progress made thus far in the nanodiagnostics field as well as presenting challenges that must be overcome to obtain widespread clinical adoption.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seung-Min Park
- Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine
- Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, California 94305, USA
| | - Amin Aalipour
- Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine
- Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, California 94305, USA
| | - Ophir Vermesh
- Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine
- Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, California 94305, USA
| | - Jung Ho Yu
- Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine
- Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, California 94305, USA
| | - Sanjiv S Gambhir
- Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine
- Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, California 94305, USA
- Canary Center at Stanford for Cancer Early Detection, Stanford University School of Medicine, 3155 Porter Drive, Palo Alto, California 94304, USA
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Hardee CL, Arévalo-Soliz LM, Hornstein BD, Zechiedrich L. Advances in Non-Viral DNA Vectors for Gene Therapy. Genes (Basel) 2017; 8:E65. [PMID: 28208635 PMCID: PMC5333054 DOI: 10.3390/genes8020065] [Citation(s) in RCA: 223] [Impact Index Per Article: 31.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2016] [Accepted: 02/01/2017] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Uses of viral vectors have thus far eclipsed uses of non-viral vectors for gene therapy delivery in the clinic. Viral vectors, however, have certain issues involving genome integration, the inability to be delivered repeatedly, and possible host rejection. Fortunately, development of non-viral DNA vectors has progressed steadily, especially in plasmid vector length reduction, now allowing these tools to fill in specifically where viral or other non-viral vectors may not be the best options. In this review, we examine the improvements made to non-viral DNA gene therapy vectors, highlight opportunities for their further development, address therapeutic needs for which their use is the logical choice, and discuss their future expansion into the clinic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cinnamon L. Hardee
- Interdepartmental Program in Integrative Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA;
- Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA; (L.M.A.-S.); (B.D.H.)
| | - Lirio Milenka Arévalo-Soliz
- Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA; (L.M.A.-S.); (B.D.H.)
- Verna and Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Department of Pharmacology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Benjamin D. Hornstein
- Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA; (L.M.A.-S.); (B.D.H.)
| | - Lynn Zechiedrich
- Interdepartmental Program in Integrative Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA;
- Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA; (L.M.A.-S.); (B.D.H.)
- Verna and Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Department of Pharmacology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
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Hu L, Ai J, Long H, Liu W, Wang X, Zuo Y, Li Y, Wu Q, Deng Y. Integrative microRNA and gene profiling data analysis reveals novel biomarkers and mechanisms for lung cancer. Oncotarget 2017; 7:8441-54. [PMID: 26870998 PMCID: PMC4890978 DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.7264] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2015] [Accepted: 01/13/2016] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Studies on the accuracy of microRNAs (miRNAs) in diagnosing non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have still controversial. Therefore, we conduct to systematically identify miRNAs related to NSCLC, and their target genes expression changes using microarray data sets. METHODS We screened out five miRNAs and six genes microarray data sets that contained miRNAs and genes expression in NSCLC from Gene Expression Omnibus. RESULTS Our analysis results indicated that fourteen miRNAs were significantly dysregulated in NSCLC. Five of them were up-regulated (miR-9, miR-708, miR-296-3p, miR-892b, miR-140-5P) while nine were down-regulated (miR-584, miR-218, miR-30b, miR-522, miR486-5P, miR-34c-3p, miR-34b, miR-516b, miR-592). The integrating diagnosis sensitivity (SE) and specificity (SP) were 82.6% and 89.9%, respectively. We also found that 4 target genes (p < 0.05, fold change > 2.0) were significant correlation with the 14 discovered miRNAs, and the classifiers we built from one training set predicted the validation set with higher accuracy (SE = 0.987, SP = 0.824). CONCLUSIONS Our results demonstrate that integrating miRNAs and target genes are valuable for identifying promising biomarkers, and provided a new insight on underlying mechanism of NSCLC. Further, our well-designed validation studies surely warrant the investigation of the role of target genes related to these 14 miRNAs in the prediction and development of NSCLC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ling Hu
- Department of Anesthesiology, Tianyou Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,Department of Internal Medicine and Biochemistry, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Junmei Ai
- Department of Internal Medicine and Biochemistry, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Hui Long
- Department of Gastroenterology, Tianyou Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Weijun Liu
- Department of Orthopedics, Pu Ai Hospital, Affiliated to Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Xiaomei Wang
- Department of Biological Science and Technology, Wuhan Bioengineering Institute, Wuhan, China
| | - Yi Zuo
- Department of Orthopedic, Tianyou Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Yan Li
- Department of Internal Medicine and Biochemistry, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Qingming Wu
- Medical College, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Youping Deng
- Medical College, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,Department of Internal Medicine and Biochemistry, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA
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Abstract
The implementation of effective early detection programs has significantly improved treatment, prognosis, and life expectancy in breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers. Early-detection methods need to be developed for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), where progress during the past decades has remained slow. Addressing this need, the forum "Early Detection: Lessons Learned from Other Cancers" was held in November 2015 and presented by the Kenner Family Research Fund in partnership with the American Pancreatic Association. Leading experts from breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers described the development of early detection methods in their respective fields. Emerging opportunities for scientific advancement were subsequently identified that hold the greatest promise for the future of early detection in PDAC, including a 4-part strategic map of necessary actionable items. Knowledge from other fields must be applied to achieve large-scale change within the arena of PDAC. A major breakthrough in early detection of PDAC will occur only through a definitive interdisciplinary collaborative effort involving a critical mass of committed academic research institutions, government agencies, industry leaders, and philanthropies.
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Menezes ME, Das SK, Minn I, Emdad L, Wang XY, Sarkar D, Pomper MG, Fisher PB. Detecting Tumor Metastases: The Road to Therapy Starts Here. Adv Cancer Res 2016; 132:1-44. [PMID: 27613128 DOI: 10.1016/bs.acr.2016.07.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Metastasis is the complex process by which primary tumor cells migrate and establish secondary tumors in an adjacent or distant location in the body. Early detection of metastatic disease and effective therapeutic options for targeting these detected metastases remain impediments to effectively treating patients with advanced cancers. If metastatic lesions are identified early, patients might maximally benefit from effective early therapeutic interventions. Further, monitoring patients whose primary tumors are effectively treated for potential metastatic disease onset is also highly valuable. Finally, patients with metastatic disease can be monitored for efficacy of specific therapeutic interventions through effective metastatic detection techniques. Thus, being able to detect and visualize metastatic lesions is key and provides potential to greatly improve overall patient outcomes. In order to achieve these objectives, researchers have endeavored to mechanistically define the steps involved in the metastatic process as well as ways to effectively detect metastatic progression. We presently overview various preclinical and clinical in vitro and in vivo assays developed to more efficiently detect tumor metastases, which provides the foundation for developing more effective therapies for this invariably fatal component of the cancerous process.
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Affiliation(s)
- M E Menezes
- Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, United States
| | - S K Das
- Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, United States; VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, United States; VCU Massey Cancer Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, United States
| | - I Minn
- The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States
| | - L Emdad
- Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, United States; VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, United States; VCU Massey Cancer Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, United States
| | - X-Y Wang
- Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, United States; VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, United States; VCU Massey Cancer Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, United States
| | - D Sarkar
- Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, United States; VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, United States; VCU Massey Cancer Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, United States
| | - M G Pomper
- The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States
| | - P B Fisher
- Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, United States; VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, United States; VCU Massey Cancer Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, United States.
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Artificial MicroRNAs as Novel Secreted Reporters for Cell Monitoring in Living Subjects. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0159369. [PMID: 27442530 PMCID: PMC4956193 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0159369] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2015] [Accepted: 07/02/2016] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Reporter genes are powerful technologies that can be used to directly inform on the fate of transplanted cells in living subjects. Imaging reporter genes are often employed to quantify cell number, location(s), and viability with various imaging modalities. To complement this, reporters that are secreted from cells can provide a low-cost, in vitro diagnostic test to monitor overall cell viability at relatively high frequency without knowing the locations of all cells. Whereas protein-based secretable reporters have been developed, an RNA-based reporter detectable with amplification inherent PCR-based assays has not been previously described. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs (18–22 nt) that regulate mRNA translation and are being explored as relatively stable blood-based disease biomarkers. We developed an artificial miRNA-based secreted reporter, called Sec-miR, utilizing a coding sequence that is not expressed endogenously and does not have any known vertebrate target. Sec-miR was detectable in both the cells and culture media of transiently transfected cells. Cells stably expressing Sec-miR also reliably secreted it into the culture media. Mice implanted with parental HeLa cells or HeLa cells expressing both Sec-miR and the bioluminescence imaging (BLI) reporter gene Firefly luciferase (FLuc) were monitored over time for tumor volume, FLuc signal via BLI, and blood levels of Sec-miR. Significantly (p<0.05) higher Sec-miR was found in the blood of mice bearing Sec-miR-expressing tumors compared to parental cell tumors at 21 and 28 days after implantation. Importantly, blood Sec-miR reporter levels after day 21 showed a trend towards correlation with tumor volume (R2 = 0.6090; p = 0.0671) and significantly correlated with FLuc signal (R2 = 0.7067; p<0.05). Finally, we could significantly (p<0.01) amplify Sec-miR secretion into the cell media by chaining together multiple Sec-miR copies (4 instead of 1 or 2) within an expression cassette. Overall, we show that a novel complement of BLI together with a unique Sec-miR reporter adds an in vitro RNA-based diagnostic to enhance the monitoring of transplanted cells. While Sec-miR was not as sensitive as BLI for monitoring cell number, it may be more sensitive than clinically-relevant positron emission tomography (PET) reporter assays. Future work will focus on improving cell detectability via improved secretion of Sec-miR reporters from cells and more sensitive detection platforms, as well as, exploring other miRNA sequences to allow multiplexed monitoring of more than one cell population at a time. Continued development may lead to more refined and precise monitoring of cell-based therapies.
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Haznadar M, Cai Q, Krausz KW, Bowman ED, Margono E, Noro R, Thompson MD, Mathé EA, Munro HM, Steinwandel MD, Gonzalez FJ, Blot WJ, Harris CC. Urinary Metabolite Risk Biomarkers of Lung Cancer: A Prospective Cohort Study. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2016; 25:978-86. [PMID: 27013655 DOI: 10.1158/1055-9965.epi-15-1191] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/13/2015] [Accepted: 03/17/2016] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Lung cancer is a major health burden causing 160,000 and 1.6 million deaths annually in the United States and worldwide, respectively. METHODS While seeking to identify stable and reproducible biomarkers in noninvasively collected biofluids, we assessed whether previously identified metabolite urinary lung cancer biomarkers, creatine riboside (CR), N-acetylneuraminic acid (NANA), cortisol sulfate, and indeterminate metabolite 561+, were elevated in the urines of subjects prior to lung cancer diagnosis in a well-characterized prospective Southern Community Cohort Study (SCCS). Urine was examined from 178 patients and 351 nondiseased controls, confirming that one of four metabolites was associated with lung cancer risk in the overall case-control set, whereas two metabolites were associated with lung cancer risk in European-Americans. RESULTS OR of lung cancer associated with elevated CR levels, and adjusted for smoking and other potential confounders, was 2.0 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.2-3.4; P= 0.01]. In European-Americans, both CR and NANA were significantly associated with lung cancer risk (OR = 5.3; 95% CI, 1.6-17.6; P= 0.006 and OR=3.5; 95% CI, 1.5-8.4; P= 0.004, respectively). However, race itself did not significantly modify the associations. ROC analysis showed that adding CR and NANA to a model containing previously established lung cancer risk factors led to a significantly improved classifier (P= 0.01). Increasing urinary levels of CR and NANA displayed a positive association with increasing tumor size, strengthening a previously established link to altered tumor metabolism. CONCLUSION AND IMPACT These replicated results provide evidence that identified urinary metabolite biomarkers have a potential utility as noninvasive, clinical screening tools for early diagnosis of lung cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 25(6); 978-86. ©2016 AACR.
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Affiliation(s)
- Majda Haznadar
- Laboratory of Human Carcinogenesis, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
| | - Qiuyin Cai
- Division of Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee
| | - Kristopher W Krausz
- Laboratory of Metabolism, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
| | - Elise D Bowman
- Laboratory of Human Carcinogenesis, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
| | - Ezra Margono
- Laboratory of Human Carcinogenesis, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
| | | | - Matthew D Thompson
- Laboratory of Metabolism, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
| | - Ewy A Mathé
- Biomedical Informatics, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio
| | | | | | - Frank J Gonzalez
- Laboratory of Metabolism, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
| | - William J Blot
- Division of Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee. International Epidemiology Institute, Rockville, Maryland.
| | - Curtis C Harris
- Laboratory of Human Carcinogenesis, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland.
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Abstract
Advances in nanomedicine are providing sophisticated functions to precisely control the behavior of nanoscale drugs and diagnostics. Strategies that coopt protease activity as molecular triggers are increasingly important in nanoparticle design, yet the pharmacokinetics of these systems are challenging to understand without a quantitative framework to reveal nonintuitive associations. We describe a multicompartment mathematical model to predict strategies for ultrasensitive detection of cancer using synthetic biomarkers, a class of activity-based probes that amplify cancer-derived signals into urine as a noninvasive diagnostic. Using a model formulation made of a PEG core conjugated with protease-cleavable peptides, we explore a vast design space and identify guidelines for increasing sensitivity that depend on critical parameters such as enzyme kinetics, dosage, and probe stability. According to this model, synthetic biomarkers that circulate in stealth but then activate at sites of disease have the theoretical capacity to discriminate tumors as small as 5 mm in diameter-a threshold sensitivity that is otherwise challenging for medical imaging and blood biomarkers to achieve. This model may be adapted to describe the behavior of additional activity-based approaches to allow cross-platform comparisons, and to predict allometric scaling across species.
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Koonce NA, Levy J, Hardee ME, Jamshidi-Parsian A, Vang KB, Sharma S, Raleigh JA, Dings RPM, Griffin RJ. Targeting Artificial Tumor Stromal Targets for Molecular Imaging of Tumor Vascular Hypoxia. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0135607. [PMID: 26308944 PMCID: PMC4550408 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0135607] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2014] [Accepted: 07/23/2015] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Developed and tested for many years, a variety of tumor hypoxia detection methods have been inconsistent in their ability to predict treatment outcomes or monitor treatment efficacy, limiting their present prognostic capability. These variable results might stem from the fact that these approaches are based on inherently wide-ranging global tumor oxygenation levels based on uncertain influences of necrotic regions present in most solid tumors. Here, we have developed a novel non-invasive and specific method for tumor vessel hypoxia detection, as hypoxemia (vascular hypoxia) has been implicated as a key driver of malignant progression, therapy resistance and metastasis. This method is based on high-frequency ultrasound imaging of α-pimonidazole targeted-microbubbles to the exogenously administered hypoxia marker pimonidazole. The degree of tumor vessel hypoxia was assessed in three mouse models of mammary gland carcinoma (4T1, SCK and MMTV-Wnt-1) and amassed up to 20% of the tumor vasculature. In the 4T1 mammary gland carcinoma model, the signal strength of α-pimonidazole targeted-microbubbles was on average 8-fold fold higher in tumors of pimonidazole-injected mice than in non-pimonidazole injected tumor bearing mice or non-targeted microbubbles in pimonidazole-injected tumor bearing mice. Overall, this provides proof of principle for generating and targeting artificial antigens able to be ‘created’ on-demand under tumor specific microenvironmental conditions, providing translational diagnostic, therapeutic and treatment planning potential in cancer and other hypoxia-associated diseases or conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathan A. Koonce
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States of America
| | - Joseph Levy
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States of America
| | - Matthew E. Hardee
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States of America
| | - Azemat Jamshidi-Parsian
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States of America
| | - Kieng B. Vang
- Center for Integrative Nanotechnology Sciences, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Arkansas, United States of America
| | - Sunil Sharma
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States of America
| | - James A. Raleigh
- Department of Radiation Oncology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America
| | - Ruud P. M. Dings
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States of America
| | - Robert J. Griffin
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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