Abstract
Multigene-based combination therapy is an effective practice in cancer gene therapy. Apoptin is a chicken anemia virus-derived, p53-independent, Bcl-2-insensitive apoptotic protein with the ability to specifically induce apoptosis in various human tumor cells. Interleukin-24 (IL-24) displays ubiquitous antitumor property and tumor-specific killing activity. Adeno-associated virus (AAV) is a promising gene delivery vehicle due to its advantage of low pathogenicity and long-term gene expression. In this study, we assessed the efficacy of combination therapy using AAV-mediated co-expression of apoptin and interleukin-24 on hepatocellular carcinoma in vitro and in vivo. Our results showed that AAV-mediated co-expression of IL-24 and apoptin significantly suppressed the growth and induced the apoptosis of HepG2 cells in vitro. Furthermore, AAV-mediated combined treatment of IL-24 and apoptin significantly suppressed tumor growth and induced apoptosis of tumor cells in xenograft nude mice. These data suggest that AAV vectors that co-express apoptin and IL-24 have great potential in cancer gene therapy.
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the funds from the Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang (QC2011C071), Dr. Wu Liande Fund (WLD-QN1110), and Heilongjiang Science and Technology Project Fund.
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Lijie Yuan and Hengyu Zhao contributed equally to this study.
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Yuan, L., Zhao, H., Zhang, L. et al. The efficacy of combination therapy using adeno-associated virus-mediated co-expression of apoptin and interleukin-24 on hepatocellular carcinoma. Tumor Biol. 34, 3027–3034 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-013-0867-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-013-0867-z