Synergistic cytotoxic effects of recombinant human adenovirus p53 and radiation at various time points in A549 lung adenocarcinoma cells

Copy Number Analysis Reveal Genetic Risks of Penile Cancer

Objectives

To evaluate copy number alterations (CNAs) in genes associated with penile cancer (PeC) and determine their correlation and prognostic ability with PeC.

Methods

Whole-exome sequencing was performed for tumor tissue and matched normal DNA of 35 patients diagnosed with penile squamous cell carcinoma from 2011 to 2016. Somatic CNAs were detected using the Genome Analysis Toolkit (GATK). Retrospective clinical data were collected and analyzed. All the data were statistically analyzed using SPSS 16.0 software. The cancer-specific survival rates were estimated by Kaplan-Meier curves and compared with the log-rank test.

Results

CNAs in the MYCN gene was detected in 19 (amplification: 54.29%) patients. Other CNAs gene targets were FAK (amplification: 45.72%, deletion: 8.57%), TP53 (amplification: 2.86%, deletion: 51.43%), TRKA (amplification: 34.29%, deletion: 2.86%), p75NTR (amplification: 5.71%, deletion: 42.86%), Miz-1 (amplification: 14.29%, deletion: 20.00%), Max (amplification: 17.14%, deletion: 2.86%), Bmi1 (amplification:14.29%, deletion: 48.57%), and MDM2 (amplification: 5.71%, deletion: 45.72%). The CNAs in MYCN and FAK correlated significantly with patient prognosis (P<0.05). The 3-year Recurrence-free survival rate was 87.10% among patients followed up. The 5-year survival rate of patients with MYCN amplification was 69.2%, compared to 94.4% in the non-amplification group. The 5-year survival rate of patients with FAK amplification was 65.6%, compared to 94.7% in the non-amplification group. The PPI network showed that TP53 and MYCN might play meaningful functional roles in PeC.

Conclusion

MYCN and FAK amplification and TP53 deletion were apparent in PeC. MYCN and TP53 were hub genes in PeC. MYCN and FAK amplification was also detected and analyzed, and the findings indicated that these two genes are predictors of poor prognosis in PeC.

The First Approved Gene Therapy Product for Cancer Ad-p53 (Gendicine): 12 Years in the Clinic

Gendicine (recombinant human p53 adenovirus), developed by Shenzhen SiBiono GeneTech Co. Ltd., was approved in 2003 by the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) as a first-in-class gene therapy product to treat head and neck cancer, and entered the commercial market in 2004. Gendicine is a biological therapy that is delivered via minimally invasive intratumoral injection, as well as by intracavity or intravascular infusion. The wild-type (wt) p53 protein expressed by Gendicine-transduced cells is a tumor suppressor that is activated by cellular stress, and mediates cell-cycle arrest and DNA repair, or induces apoptosis, senescence, and/or autophagy, depending upon cellular stress conditions. Based on 12 years of commercial use in >30,000 patients, and >30 published clinical studies, Gendicine has exhibited an exemplary safety record, and when combined with chemotherapy and radiotherapy has demonstrated significantly higher response rates than for standard therapies alone. In addition to head and neck cancer, Gendicine has been successfully applied to treat various other cancer types and different stages of disease. Thirteen published studies that include long-term survival data showed that Gendicine combination regimens yield progression-free survival times that are significantly longer than standard therapies alone. Although the p53 gene is mutated in >50% of all human cancers, p53 mutation status did not significantly influence efficacy outcomes and long-term survival rate for Ad-p53-treated patients. To date, Shenzhen SiBiono GeneTech has manufactured 41 batches of Gendicine in compliance with CFDA QC/QA requirements, and 169,571 vials (1.0 × 10¹² vector particles per vial) have been used to treat patients. No serious adverse events have been reported, except for vector-associated transient fever, which occurred in 50-60% of patients and persisted for only a few hours. The manufacturing accomplishments and clinical experience with Gendicine, as well as the understanding of its cellular mechanisms of action and implications, could provide valuable insights for the international gene therapy community and add valuable data to promote further developments and advancements in the gene therapy field.

Effect of exogenous p51a gene on the growth and chemo sensitivity of human lung adenocarcinoma cell lines

BACKGROUND

The dysfunction of p53-mediated apoptosis is the key to tumorigenesis, so most gene therapy programs concentrate on improving the expressing level of wild-type p53 in tumour cells. However, the p53 gene therapy has not yielded satisfactory results in tumours with normal p53 function. A new member of p53 gene family-p63, has provided new hopes. TAp63γ (p51A) resembles p53 the most, thus it might become a new promising therapeutic gene of tumours.

METHODS

We designed the primer pairs of p51A and amplified the p51A cDNA sequence from human skeletal muscle poly A + RNA to construct recombinant plasmid. It was then transfected into human lung adenocarcinoma cell lines A549 and NCI-H1299. RT-PCR, Western blot, MTT, flow cytometry and colony formation assay were used to analyse the growth and chemosensitivity of tumour cells.

RESULTS

The recombinant plasmid was constructed and transfected into tumour cells successfully. After transfection, p51A mRNA, P51A protein and P21 protein level raised significantly. Cell proliferation capacity and colony formation rate decreased while cell apoptosis rate and chemosensitivity to cisplatin and adriamycin increased significantly.

CONCLUSIONS

Exogenous p51A gene can increase its expression in A549 and NCI-H1299 cells, suppress cell growth and induce cell apoptosis. Moreover, it can also cooperate with chemotherapy and reduce the dose and side-effect. p51A gene can suppress tumours in spite of p53 status and p21 gene might be involved. It might become a new promising therapeutic gene of tumours, which will make up for the limitation of p53 gene therapy.

Effect of the p53α gene on the chemosensitivity of the H1299 human lung adenocarcinoma cell line

To investigate the effects of tumor protein p53 (p53 or TP53) α gene on the chemosensitivity of the H1299 human lung adenocarcinoma cell line, the recombinant vector pEGFP-p53α was constructed. The vector pEGFP-p53α was transfected into the cultured p53-null H1299 cells using Lipofectamine 2000. The G418-resistant cells were then selected. The expression of the p53α gene in these cells was examined using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and TP53 protein expression was examined using western blot analysis and immunocytochemistry. An MTT assay and colony formation assay were used to analyze the response of the transfected cells to cisplatin (CDDP). DAPI staining was used to determine the level of apoptosis of the transfected cells. The transfected H1299 human lung adenocarcinoma cells stably expressed TP53 protein. The MTT assay demonstrated that the 50% inhibitory concentrations for the H1299, H1299/pEGFP-N₁ and H1299/pEGFP-p53α cells were 28, 24 and 18 µmol/l, respectively. The survival rate of H1299/pEGFP-p53α cells was significantly reduced compared with that of H1299 and H1299/pEGFP-N₁ cells (P<0.05). The colony formation assay and DAPI staining identified that the colony formation rate and the number of apoptotic cells of H1299/pEGFP-p53α were significantly reduced, compared with those of the H1299 and H1299/pEGFP-N₁ cells (P<0.05). Therefor, the present study demonstrated that the transfection of H1299 cells with the p53α gene resulted in an increase in sensitivity to CDDP chemotherapy. The combination of CDDP and gene therapy for H1299 lung adenocarcinoma cell line provides an experimental basis for clinical research.

Evaluation of efficacy and safety for recombinant human adenovirus-p53 in the control of the malignant pleural effusions via thoracic perfusion

A certain number of studies have showed that p53 gene transfer has an anti-tumor activity in vitro and in vivo. This study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of thoracic perfusion of recombinant human adenovirus p53 (rAd-p53, Gendicine) for controlling malignant pleural effusion (MPE). We searched for the relevant studies from the database of MEDLINE, Web of Science, EMBASE, Cochrance Library and CNKI to collect the trials concerning the efficacy and safety of rAd-p53 to treat MPE. Fourteen randomised controlled trials (RCTs) with 879 patients were involved in this analysis. The rAd-p53 combined with chemotherapeutic agents significantly improved the overall response rate (ORR) (P < 0.001; odds ratio = 3.73) and disease control rate (DCR) (P < 0.001; odds ratio = 2.32) of patients with MPE as well as the quality of life (QOL) of patients (P < 0.001; odds ratio = 4.27), compared with that of chemotherapeutic agents alone. In addition, the participation of rAd-p53 did not have an obvious impact on the most of incidence of adverse reactions (AEs) (P < 0.05) except the fever (P < 0.001). However, the fever was self-limited and could be tolerated well. The application of rAd-p53 through thoracic perfusion for treating MPE had a better efficacy and safety, which could be a potential choice for controlling MPE.

Recombinant human adenovirus-p53 therapy for the treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a meta-analysis

To compare clinical curative effects and toxicity of recombinant human adenovirus-p53 injection (rAd-p53, Gendicine) combining chemoradiotherapy (CRT)/radiotherapy (RT) with those obtained with CRT/RT alone in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). We searched all the eligible studies from the Pubmed, Cochran Library, Embase, Web of science, Wanfang database and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). A total of twelve studies including 566 participants met the criteria to perform a meta-analysis. The results indicated the complete remission (CR) and overall response (OR) in the combination therapy group were significantly improved compared with the CRT/RT group (CR:RR = 2.03, 95% CI 1.66-2.48, p < 0.00001; OR:RR = 1.23, 95% CI 1.13-1.33, p < 0.00001), and patients who received the combination therapy showed significantly prolonged 1- and 2-year overall survival (OS), 2 year disease-free survival (DFS) rate and 2 year recurrence-free survival (RFS) rate (1 year OS:RR = 1.08, 95% CI 1.00-1.17, p = 0.04; 2 year OS:RR = 1.12, 95% CI 1.00-1.26, p = 0.04; 2 year DFS:RR = 1.41, 95% CI 1.09-1.83, p = 0.008; 2 year RFS:RR = 1.16, 95% CI 1.03-1.31, p = 0.02), but there was no significance in 3 year OS rate and 2 year distant metastases-free survival (DMFS) rate (3 year OS:RR = 1.28, 95% CI 1.00-1.62, p = 0.05; 2 year DMFS:RR = 1.05, 95% CI 0.89-1.24, p = 0.55). Furthermore, CRT/RT combined with rAd-p53 could not aggravate the myelosuppression versus CRT/RT alone (RR = 0.79, 95% CI 0.51-1.23, p = 0.30). The results demonstrated CRT/RT combined with rAd-p53 can result in enhanced survival and better clinical responses of patients with NPC. Therefore, rAd-p53 has great potential as an effective therapy for NPC.

Adenovirus vector-mediated FAM176A overexpression induces cell death in human H1299 non-small cell lung cancer cells

FAM176A (family with sequence similarity 176 member A) is a novel molecule related to programmed cell death. A decreased expression of FAM176A has been found in several types of human tumors in including lung cancers. In the present study, we investigated the biological activities of FAM176A on the human non-small cell lung cancer cell line H1299 cells. We constructed a recombinant adenovirus 5-FAM176A vector (Ad5-FAM176A) and evaluated the expression and anti-tumor activities in vitro. Cell viability analysis revealed that the adenovirus-mediated increase of FAM176A inhibited the growth of the tumor cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. This inhibitory effect was mediated by both autophagy and apoptosis that involved caspase activation. In addition, cell cycle analysis suggested that Ad5-FAM176A could induce cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase, all of which suggested that adenovirus-mediated FAM176A gene transfer might present a new therapeutic approach for lung cancer treatment.

Recombinant adenovirus-p53 (Gendicine) sensitizes a pancreatic carcinoma cell line to radiation

OBJECTIVE

In this study, we examine the effects of recombinant adenovirus-p53 (rAd-p53) on the pancreatic carcinoma cell line SW1990. Specifically, we determine if expression of rAd-p53 sensitizes these cells to radiation.

METHODS

Following transfection of SW1990 cells with rAd-p53, we measured expression of P53, P21 and Bax by immunocytochemistry. Both transfected and control cell lines were irradiated with a range of doses, and the survival fractions (SF) were calculated. Dose survival curves were constructed and modeled for comparison.

RESULTS

Transfection of SW1990 cells with rAd-p53 resulted in increased expression of P53, P21 and Bax in a time-dependent manner. At 96 h after transfection, 89.92% of cells expressed P53, 56.8% expressed P21, and 76.50% expressed Bax. The SF following radiation was lower in the rAd-p53 transfected cells compared to the control cells, suggesting that rAd-p53 sensitizes SW1990 cells to radiation (D0 for the experimental and control groups was 2.199 and 2.462, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

Use of the adenoviral vector is an effective means of transfecting SW1990 cells with wild-type P53, and this sensitizes the cell line to irradiation. This work suggests that combining rAd-p53 with radiation therapy in pancreatic cancer may be therapeutically beneficial.