A conditionally replicating adenovirus with strict selectivity in killing cells expressing epidermal growth factor receptor.

Virotherapy of cancer using oncolytic adenoviruses has shown promise in both preclinical and clinical settings. One important challenge to reach the full therapeutic potential of oncolytic adenoviruses is accomplishing efficient infection of cancer cells and avoiding uptake by normal tissue through tropism modification. Towards this goal, we constructed and characterized an oncolytic adenovirus, carrying mutated capsid proteins to abolish the promiscuous adenovirus native tropism and encoding a bispecific adapter molecule to target the virus to the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR).

Chemosensitizing tumor cells by targeting the Fanconi anemia pathway with an adenovirus overexpressing dominant-negative FANCA.

Fanconi anemia (FA) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by bone-marrow failure and cellular hypersensitivity to crosslinking agents, including cisplatin. Here, we studied the use of the FA pathway as a possible target for cancer gene therapy with the aim to sensitize tumor cells for cisplatin by interfering with the FA pathway. As proof-of-principle, FA and non-FA lymphoblast-derived tumors were grown subcutaneously in scid mice and treated with two different concentrations of cisplatin.

Overexpression of Bcl2 abrogates chemo- and radiotherapy-induced sensitisation of NCI-H460 non-small-cell lung cancer cells to adenovirus-mediated expression of full-length TRAIL.

TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL, also known as Apo-2L) is a promising novel anticancer agent that selectively induces apoptosis in tumour cells and the activity of which can be enhanced by combined treatment with chemo- or radiotherapy. For therapeutic purposes, the use of full-length TRAIL may be favourable to recombinant TRAIL based on its increased tumour cell killing potential, and the delivery of TRAIL at the tumour site by adenovirus vectors may provide an approach to overcome the short half-life of recombinant TRAIL and hepatocyte toxicity in vivo. Here, we constructed an adenoviral vector expressing full-length TRAIL (AdTRAIL) and studied the potential of chemo- and radiotherapy in enhancing AdTRAIL-induced apoptosis in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) H460 cells and normal cells and, in addition, investigated the mechanism of AdTRAIL-induced apoptosis.

Conditionally replicative adenovirus expressing a targeting adapter molecule exhibits enhanced oncolytic potency on CAR-deficient tumors.

Conditionally replicative adenoviruses (CRAds) are potentially useful agents for anticancer virotherapy approaches. However, lack of coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor (CAR) expression on many primary tumor cells limits the oncolytic potency of CRAds. This makes the concept of targeting, that is, redirecting infection via CAR-independent entry pathways, relevant for CRAd development.

Efficient and selective gene transfer into primary human brain tumors by using single-chain antibody-targeted adenoviral vectors with native tropism abolished.

The application of adenoviral vectors in cancer gene therapy is hampered by low receptor expression on tumor cells and high receptor expression on normal epithelial cells. Targeting adenoviral vectors toward tumor cells may improve cancer gene therapy procedures by providing augmented tumor transduction and decreased toxicity to normal tissues. Targeting requires both the complete abolition of native tropism and the addition of a new specific binding ligand onto the viral capsid.