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Asthana V, Stern BS, Tang Y, Bugga P, Li A, Ferguson A, Asthana A, Bao G, Drezek RA. Development of a Novel Class of Self-Assembling dsRNA Cancer Therapeutics: A Proof-of-Concept Investigation. MOLECULAR THERAPY-ONCOLYTICS 2020; 18:419-431. [PMID: 32913891 PMCID: PMC7452102 DOI: 10.1016/j.omto.2020.07.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2020] [Accepted: 07/28/2020] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
Cancer has proven to be an extremely difficult challenge to treat. Several fundamental issues currently underlie cancer treatment, including differentiating self from nonself, functional coupling of the recognition and therapeutic components of various therapies, and the propensity of cancerous cells to develop resistance to common treatment modalities via evolutionary pressure. Given these limitations, there is an increasing need to develop an all-encompassing therapeutic that can uniquely target malignant cells, decouple recognition from treatment, and overcome evolutionarily driven cancer resistance. We describe herein a new class of programmable self-assembling double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-based cancer therapeutics that uniquely targets aberrant genetic sequences and in a functionally decoupled manner, undergoes oncogenic RNA-activated displacement (ORAD), initiating a therapeutic cascade that induces apoptosis and immune activation. As a proof of concept, we show that RNA strands targeting the EWS/Fli1 fusion gene in Ewing sarcoma cells that are end blocked with phosphorothioate bonds and additionally sealed with a 2'-deoxyuridine (2'-U)-modified DNA protector can be used to induce specific and potent killing of cells containing the target oncogenic sequence but not wild type.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Brett S Stern
- Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Yuqi Tang
- Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Pallavi Bugga
- Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Ang Li
- Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Adam Ferguson
- Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Anantratn Asthana
- Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Gang Bao
- Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Rebekah A Drezek
- Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, TX 77030, USA
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Ruoß M, Kieber V, Rebholz S, Linnemann C, Rinderknecht H, Häussling V, Häcker M, Olde Damink LHH, Ehnert S, Nussler AK. Cell-Type-Specific Quantification of a Scaffold-Based 3D Liver Co-Culture. Methods Protoc 2019; 3:E1. [PMID: 31878071 PMCID: PMC7189675 DOI: 10.3390/mps3010001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2019] [Revised: 12/18/2019] [Accepted: 12/18/2019] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
In order to increase the metabolic activity of human hepatocytes and liver cancer cell lines, many approaches have been reported in recent years. The metabolic activity could be increased mainly by cultivating the cells in 3D systems or co-cultures (with other cell lines). However, if the system becomes more complex, it gets more difficult to quantify the number of cells (e.g., on a 3D matrix). Until now, it has been impossible to quantify different cell types individually in 3D co-culture systems. Therefore, we developed a PCR-based method that allows the quantification of HepG2 cells and 3T3-J2 cells separately in a 3D scaffold culture. Moreover, our results show that this method allows better comparability between 2D and 3D cultures in comparison to the often-used approaches based on metabolic activity measurements, such as the conversion of resazurin.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc Ruoß
- Department of Traumatology, Siegfried Weller Institute, BG-Klinik Tübingen, Eberhard Karls University, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; (V.K.); (S.R.); (C.L.); (H.R.); (V.H.); (M.H.); (S.E.); (A.K.N.)
| | - Vanessa Kieber
- Department of Traumatology, Siegfried Weller Institute, BG-Klinik Tübingen, Eberhard Karls University, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; (V.K.); (S.R.); (C.L.); (H.R.); (V.H.); (M.H.); (S.E.); (A.K.N.)
| | - Silas Rebholz
- Department of Traumatology, Siegfried Weller Institute, BG-Klinik Tübingen, Eberhard Karls University, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; (V.K.); (S.R.); (C.L.); (H.R.); (V.H.); (M.H.); (S.E.); (A.K.N.)
| | - Caren Linnemann
- Department of Traumatology, Siegfried Weller Institute, BG-Klinik Tübingen, Eberhard Karls University, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; (V.K.); (S.R.); (C.L.); (H.R.); (V.H.); (M.H.); (S.E.); (A.K.N.)
| | - Helen Rinderknecht
- Department of Traumatology, Siegfried Weller Institute, BG-Klinik Tübingen, Eberhard Karls University, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; (V.K.); (S.R.); (C.L.); (H.R.); (V.H.); (M.H.); (S.E.); (A.K.N.)
| | - Victor Häussling
- Department of Traumatology, Siegfried Weller Institute, BG-Klinik Tübingen, Eberhard Karls University, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; (V.K.); (S.R.); (C.L.); (H.R.); (V.H.); (M.H.); (S.E.); (A.K.N.)
| | - Marina Häcker
- Department of Traumatology, Siegfried Weller Institute, BG-Klinik Tübingen, Eberhard Karls University, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; (V.K.); (S.R.); (C.L.); (H.R.); (V.H.); (M.H.); (S.E.); (A.K.N.)
| | | | - Sabrina Ehnert
- Department of Traumatology, Siegfried Weller Institute, BG-Klinik Tübingen, Eberhard Karls University, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; (V.K.); (S.R.); (C.L.); (H.R.); (V.H.); (M.H.); (S.E.); (A.K.N.)
| | - Andreas K. Nussler
- Department of Traumatology, Siegfried Weller Institute, BG-Klinik Tübingen, Eberhard Karls University, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; (V.K.); (S.R.); (C.L.); (H.R.); (V.H.); (M.H.); (S.E.); (A.K.N.)
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