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A polymer library approach to suicide gene therapy for cancer.

ABSTRACT: Optimal gene therapy for cancer must (i) deliver DNA to tumor cells with high efficiency, (ii) induce minimal toxicity, and (iii) avoid gene expression in healthy tissues. To this end, we generated a library of >500 degradable, poly(beta-amino esters) for potential use as nonviral DNA vectors. Using high-throughput methods, we screened this library in vitro for transfection efficiency and cytotoxicity. We tested the best performing polymer, C32, in mice for toxicity and DNA delivery after intratumor and i.m. injection. C32 delivered DNA intratumorally approximately 4-fold better than one of the best commercially available reagents, jetPEI (polyethyleneimine), and 26-fold better than naked DNA. Conversely, the highest transfection levels after i.m. administration were achieved with naked DNA, followed by polyethyleneimine; transfection was rarely observed with C32. Additionally, polyethyleneimine induced significant local toxicity after i.m. injection, whereas C32 demonstrated no toxicity. Finally, we used C32 to deliver a DNA construct encoding the A chain of diphtheria toxin (DT-A) to xenografts derived from LNCaP human prostate cancer cells. This construct regulates toxin expression both at the transcriptional level by the use of a chimeric-modified enhancer/promoter sequence of the human prostate-specific antigen gene and by DNA recombination mediated by Flp recombinase. C32 delivery of the A chain of diphtheria toxin DNA to LNCaP xenografts suppressed tumor growth and even caused 40% of tumors to regress in size. Because C32 transfects tumors locally at high levels, transfects healthy muscle poorly, and displays no toxicity, it may provide a vehicle for the local treatment of cancer.

SUBMITTER: Anderson DG

PROVIDER: S-EPMC528737 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A polymer library approach to suicide gene therapy for cancer.

Anderson Daniel G DG Peng Weidan W Akinc Akin A Hossain Naushad N Kohn Anat A Padera Robert R Langer Robert R Sawicki Janet A JA

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20041101 45

Optimal gene therapy for cancer must (i) deliver DNA to tumor cells with high efficiency, (ii) induce minimal toxicity, and (iii) avoid gene expression in healthy tissues. To this end, we generated a library of >500 degradable, poly(beta-amino esters) for potential use as nonviral DNA vectors. Using high-throughput methods, we screened this library in vitro for transfection efficiency and cytotoxicity. We tested the best performing polymer, C32, in mice for toxicity and DNA delivery after intrat ...[more]

PMID: 15520369

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Project description:Current cancer treatments may create profound iatrogenic outcomes. The adverse effects of these treatments still remain, as the serious problems that practicing physicians have to cope with in clinical practice. Although, non-specific cytotoxic agents constitute an effective treatment modality against cancer cells, they also tend to kill normal, quickly dividing cells. On the other hand, therapies targeting the genome of the tumors are both under investigation, and some others are already streamlined to clinical practice. Several approaches have been investigated in order to find a treatment targeting the cancer cells, while not affecting the normal cells. Suicide gene therapy is a therapeutic strategy, in which cell suicide inducing transgenes are introduced into cancer cells. The two major suicide gene therapeutic strategies currently pursued are: cytosine deaminase/5-fluorocytosine and the herpes simplex virus/ganciclovir. The novel strategies include silencing gene expression, expression of intracellular antibodies blocking cells' vital pathways, and transgenic expression of caspases and DNases. We analyze various elements of cancer cells' suicide inducing strategies including: targets, vectors, and mechanisms. These strategies have been extensively investigated in various types of cancers, while exploring multiple delivery routes including viruses, non-viral vectors, liposomes, nanoparticles, and stem cells. We discuss various stages of streamlining of the suicide gene therapy into clinical oncology as applied to different types of cancer. Moreover, suicide gene therapy is in the center of attention as a strategy preventing cancer from developing in patients participating in the clinical trials of regenerative medicine. In oncology, these clinical trials are aimed at regenerating, with the aid of stem cells, of the patients' organs damaged by pathologic and/or iatrogenic factors. However, the stem cells carry the risk of neoplasmic transformation. We discuss cell suicide inducing strategies aimed at preventing stem cell-originated cancerogenesis.

Project description:Background Clinical success of T cell receptor (TCR) gene therapy has previously been demonstrated for NY-ESO-1 TCR gene therapy. To increase numbers of cancer patients that can be treated with TCR gene therapy we aimed to identify a novel set of high-affinity cancer specific TCRs targeting different cancer testis (CT) antigens in prevalent HLA class I alleles. Methods In this study, we selected based on publicly available gene expression databases the most promising CT genes to target. From these selected genes we identified by HLA peptidomics the naturally processed and presented HLA class I peptides. With these peptide-HLA tetramers were generated, and by single cell sorting CT specific CD8+ T cells were selected, and expanded from the allo-HLA repertoire of healthy donors. By several functional assays high avidity CT-specific T cell clones with safe recognition pattern were selected. To evaluate the potential for clinical application in TCR gene therapy, TCRs were sequenced and transferred into peripheral blood derived CD8+ T cells. Results In total we identified, 7 novel CT-specific TCRs that effectively target MAGE-A1, MAGE-A3, MAGE-A6 and MAGE-A9 in the context of human leukocyte antigen(HLA) -A1, -A2, -A3, -B7, -B35 and -C7. TCR gene transfer into CD8⁺ T cells resulted in efficient cytokine production and cytotoxicity of variety of different tumor types without detectable cross-reactivity. In addition, major in vivo antitumor effects of MAGE-A1 specific TCR engineered CD8⁺ T cells was observed in an orthotopic xenograft model for established multiple myeloma, in which bone marrow located tumor cells were completely eradicated after T cell injection. Conclusion The identification of 7 novel CT-specific TCRs, reactive against CT antigens presented in a variety of different HLA class I alleles, allows selection of therapeutic TCRs for an increased number of cancer patients, and will improve development of personalized TCR gene therapy.

Project description:Gene-directed enzyme prodrug gene therapy (GDEPT) theoretically represents a useful method to carry out chemotherapy for cancer with minimal side effects through the formation of a chemotherapeutic agent inside cancer cells. However, despite great efforts, promising preliminary results, and a long period of time (over 25 years) since the first mention of this method, GDEPT has not yet reached the clinic. There is a growing consensus that optimal cancer therapies should generate robust tumor-specific immune responses. The advent of checkpoint immunotherapy has yielded new highly promising avenues of study in cancer therapy. For such therapy, it seems reasonable to use combinations of different immunomodulators alongside traditional methods, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, as well as GDEPT. In this review, we focused on non-viral gene immunotherapy systems combining the intratumoral production of toxins diffused by GDEPT and immunomodulatory molecules. Special attention was paid to the applications and mechanisms of action of the granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), a cytokine that is widely used but shows contradictory effects. Another method to enhance the formation of stable immune responses in a tumor, the use of danger signals, is also discussed. The process of dying from GDEPT cancer cells initiates danger signaling by releasing damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) that exert immature dendritic cells by increasing antigen uptake, maturation, and antigen presentation to cytotoxic T-lymphocytes. We hypothesized that the combined action of this danger signal and GM-CSF issued from the same dying cancer cell within a limited space would focus on a limited pool of immature dendritic cells, thus acting synergistically and enhancing their maturation and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte attraction potential. We also discuss the problem of enhancing the cancer specificity of the combined GDEPT-GM-CSF-danger signal system by means of artificial cancer specific promoters or a modified delivery system.

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A polymer library approach to suicide gene therapy for cancer.

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A polymer library approach to suicide gene therapy for cancer.

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