TRAIL is involved in the tumoricidal activity of mouse natural killer cells stimulated by Newcastle disease virus in vitro.

Newcastle disease virus (NDV) is a potential antitumor agent, and its antitumor effect has been evaluated in preclinical tests. However, the mechanisms of NDV-based antitumor therapy are still not completely clear. In the present study we found that NDV-stimulation enhanced the killing ability of mouse spleen natural killer (NK) cells towards mouse hepatoma cell lines, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) plays an important role in this tumoricidal activity.

[CD44 variant increases the invasive ability of human breast cancer cell line MCF-7 cells].

Objective: To evaluate the impact of a new CD44 variant on invasion of human breast cancer cell line MCF-7, and its possible mechanisms.

Methods: The full length cDNA encoding CD44v17 was obtained from the total RNA isolated from the MCF-7/ADR cells by reverse transcript-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and subcloned into pMD19-T vector. The CD44v17 gene sequence and reading frame were confirmed by two restriction enzymes and nucleotide sequencing, and then inserted into the eukaryotic expression vector pcDNA3.