Apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease (APE1), a bifunctional AP endonuclease/redox factor, is important in DNA repair and redox signaling, may be associated with radioresistance. Here we investigate whether targeted inhibition of APE1 can sensitize tumor cells to irradiation in vitro and in vivo. We first constructed chimeric adenoviral vector Ad5/F35 carrying human APE1 siRNA (Ad5/ F35-APE1 siRNA). The infectivity of chimeric Ad5/F35 to LOVO colon cancer cells was greater than that of Ad5. APE1 was strongly expressed and nuclear factor kB (NF-kB), a downstream molecule of APE1, known as a radioresistance factor, was constitutively active in LOVO cells. Infection of LOVO cells with Ad5/F35-APE1 siRNA resulted in a dose-dependent decrease of APE1 protein and AP endonuclease activity in vitro. Ad5/F35-APE1 siRNA significantly enhanced sensitivity of LOVO cells to irradiation in clonogenic survival assays, associated with increased cell apoptosis. The APE1 expression in LOVO cells was induced by irradiation in a dose-dependent manner, accompanied with the enhancement of DNA-binding activity of NF-kB and Ad5/F35-APE1 siRNA effectively inhibited constitutive and irradiation-induced APE1 expression and NF-kB activation. In a subcutaneous nude mouse colon cancer model, Ad5/F35-APE1 siRNA (5 Â 10 8 IU, intratumoral injection) inhibited the expression of APE1 protein in LOVO xenografts, and significantly enhanced inhibition of tumor growth by irradiation. In conclusion, APE1 may be involved as one of the radioresistance factors, and targeted inhibition of APE1 shows an effective means of enhancing tumor sensitivity to radiotherapy.
Retroviral gene transfer into human myeloid precursor cells allows introduction of marker genes as well as genes conferring resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs. We transduced a human mutant dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) cDNA into CD34 antigen-positive peripheral blood cells from patients with breast or ovarian cancer obtained after treatment with chemotherapy and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). This mutant DHFR has been shown to confer resistance to methotrexate (MTX) in murine bone marrow. We established a transduction protocol that permitted ex vivo expansion and selection of transduced early progenitor cells. The number of progenitor cells from transduced CD34- positive cells increased 50-fold after cytokine prestimulation with interleukin-1 (IL-1), c-kit ligand (KL; stem cell factor), and IL-3 and 2 weeks in liquid culture. Transduced colony-forming unit-granulocyte- macrophage (CFU-GM), assayed directly after the transduction procedure, were protected completely against 2 x 10(-8) mol/L MTX, a concentration that significantly reduced the CFU-GM detected in the control population. Gene transfer of the mutant DHFR led to a twofold selective advantage for a pre-CFU population after exposure to MTX in liquid culture (P < .001). Polybrene, in contrast with protamine, significantly inhibited the expansion of progenitors. The presence of proviral DNA was monitored by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and was detected in greater than 80% of CFU-GM and ex vivo expanded pre-CFU. We have demonstrated that human hematopoietic precursor cells can be expanded extensively after retroviral gene transfer. The same population of early progenitors can be selected ex vivo with low-dose MTX. As long-term expression of transduced genes in human hematopoietic cells remains a problem in vivo, these results may have implications for future clinical trials, especially for the introduction of nonselectable genes.
A double-copy Moloney leukemia virus-based retroviral construct containing both the NeoR gene and a mutant human dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) cDNA (Ser31 mutant) was used to transduce NIH 3T3 and mouse bone marrow (BM) progenitor cells. This resulted in increased resistance of these cells to methotrexate (MTX). The transduced BM progenitor cells were returned to lethally irradiated mice. The recipients transplanted with marrow cells infected with the recombinant virus showed protection from lethal MTX toxicity as compared with mock- infected animals. Evidence for integration of the proviral DNA was obtained by amplification of proviral DNA by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Southern analysis. Sequencing a portion of the PCR-amplified human DHFR cDNA showed the presence of the mutation. These studies with the human Ser31 mutant DHFR cDNA gave results comparable with those obtained with the mutant murine DHFR cDNA (Leu to Arg22) in developing MTX-resistant BM. The Ser31 mutant human DHFR cDNA is currently being tested for infection of human CD34+ human BM and peripheral blood stem cells in vitro.
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