Potent antitumor activity of oncolytic adenovirus expressing Beclin-1 via induction of autophagic cell death in leukemia.

ABSTRACT: An attractive strategy among adenovirus-based oncolytic systems is to design adenoviral vectors to express pro-apoptotic genes, in which this gene-virotherapy approach significantly enhances tumor cell death by activating apoptotic pathways. However, the existence of cancer cells with apoptotic defects is one of the major obstacles in gene-virotherapy. Here, we investigated whether a strategy that combines the oncolytic effects of an adenoviral vector with simultaneous expression of Beclin-1, an autophagy gene, offers a therapeutic advantage for leukemia. A Beclin-1 cDNA was cloned in an oncolytic adenovirus with chimeric Ad5/11 fiber (SG511-BECN). SG511-BECN treatment induced significant autophagic cell death, and resulted in enhanced cell killing in a variety of leukemic cell lines and p

SUBMITTER: Tong Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3757243 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature