In recent years, it has been established that programmed cell death protein ligand 1 (PD-L1)-mediated inhibition of activated PD-1 + T lymphocytes plays a major role in tumor escape from immune system during cancer progression. Lately, the anti-PD-L1 and -PD-1 immune therapies have become an important tool for treatment of advanced human cancers, including bladder cancer. However, the underlying mechanisms of PD-L1 expression in cancer are not fully understood. We found that coculture of murine bone marrow cells with bladder tumor cells promoted strong expression of PD-L1 in bone marrowderived myeloid cells. Tumor-induced expression of PD-L1 was limited to F4/80 + macrophages and Ly-6C + myeloid-derived suppressor cells. These PD-L1-expressing cells were immunosuppressive and were capable of eliminating CD8 T cells in vitro. Tumor-infiltrating PD-L1 + cells isolated from tumor-bearing mice also exerted morphology of tumorassociated macrophages and expressed high levels of prostaglandin E 2 (PGE 2 )-forming enzymes microsomal PGE 2 synthase 1 (mPGES1) and COX2. Inhibition of PGE 2 formation, using pharmacologic mPGES1 and COX2 inhibitors or genetic overexpression of PGE 2 -degrading enzyme 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (15-PGDH), resulted in reduced PD-L1 expression. Together, our study demonstrates that the COX2/mPGES1/PGE 2 pathway involved in the regulation of PD-L1 expression in tumor-infiltrating myeloid cells and, therefore, reprogramming of PGE 2 metabolism in tumor microenvironment provides an opportunity to reduce immune suppression in tumor host.PD-L1 | tumor-associated macrophages | PGE 2 metabolism | myeloid cells | bone marrow

Mutations in the ATP-binding cassette transporter A3 gene (ABCA3) result in severe neonatal respiratory distress syndrome and childhood interstitial lung disease. As most ABCA3 mutations are rare or private, determination of mutation pathogenicity is often based on results from in silico prediction tools, identification in unrelated diseased individuals, statistical association studies, or expert opinion. Functional biologic studies of ABCA3 mutations are needed to confirm mutation pathogenicity and inform clinical decision making. Our objective was to functionally characterize two ABCA3 mutations (p.R288K and p.R1474W) identified among term and latepreterm infants with respiratory distress syndrome with unclear pathogenicity in a genetically versatile model system. We performed transient transfection of HEK293T cells with wild-type or mutant ABCA3 alleles to assess protein processing with immunoblotting. We used transduction of A549 cells with adenoviral vectors, which concurrently silenced endogenous ABCA3 and expressed either wildtype or mutant ABCA3 alleles (p.R288K and p.R1474W) to assess immunofluorescent localization, ATPase activity, and organelle ultrastructure. Both ABCA3 mutations (p.R288K and p.R1474W) encoded proteins with reduced ATPase activity but with normal intracellular localization and protein processing. Ultrastructural phenotypes of lamellar body-like vesicles in A549 cells transduced with mutant alleles were similar to wild type. Mutant proteins encoded by ABCA3 mutations p.R288K and p.R1474W had reduced ATPase activity, a biologically plausible explanation for disruption of surfactant metabolism by impaired phospholipid transport into the lamellar body. These results also demonstrate the usefulness of a genetically versatile, human model system for functional characterization of ABCA3 mutations with unclear pathogenicity.Keywords: surfactant; childhood interstitial lung disease; neonatal respiratory distress; respiratory distress syndrome ATP-binding cassette transporter A3 (ABCA3), a member of a large family of proteins that hydrolyze ATP to transport substances across biologic membranes, is encoded by an 80-kb gene (ABCA3; NM_001089.2, Gene ID 21) and consists of 1,704 amino acids with two membranespanning domains and two nucleotide binding domains. ABCA3 is expressed in alveolar type II cells, localizes to the membranes of lamellar bodies, and transports phospholipids into the lamellar body, where surfactant, a complex protein-phospholipid mixture that reduces surface tension and prevents alveolar collapse at end expiration, is assembled and stored (1-3). ABCA3 is also required for lamellar body biogenesis (4).Biallelic loss-of-function (nonsense, frameshift) mutations in ABCA3 result in severe, progressive neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) that is lethal by 1 year of age without lung transplantation (5). However, for individuals with missense, T.C., F.V.W., A.H., B.P.H., and F.S.C.; drafting and revising the manuscript for important intellectual content-J.A.W., P.Y....

Radiation therapy methods have evolved remarkably in recent years which have resulted in more effective local tumor control with negligible toxicity of surrounding normal tissues. However, local recurrence and distant metastasis often occur following radiation therapy mostly due to the development of radioresistance through the deregulation of the cell cycle, apoptosis, and inhibition of DNA damage repair mechanisms. Over the last decade, extensive progress in radiotherapy and gene therapy combinatorial approaches has been achieved to overcome resistance of tumor cells to radiation. In this review, we summarize the results from experimental cancer therapy studies on the combination of radiation therapy and gene therapy.

Adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5) vectors are well suited for gene therapy. However, tissue-selective transduction by systemically administered Ad5-based vectors is confounded by viral particle sequestration in the liver. Hexon-modified Ad5 expressing reporter gene under transcriptional control by the immediate/early cytomegalovirus (CMV) or the Roundabout 4 receptor (Robo4) enhancer/promoter were characterized by growth in cell culture, stability in vitro, gene transfer in the presence of human coagulation factor X, and biodistribution in mice. The obtained data demonstrate the utility of the Robo4 promoter in an Ad5 vector context. Substitution of the hypervariable region 7 (HVR7) of the Ad5 hexon with HVR7 from Ad serotype 3 resulted in decreased liver tropism and dramatically altered biodistribution of gene expression. The results of these studies suggest that the combination of liver detargeting using a genetic modification of hexon with an endothelium-specific transcriptional control element produces an additive effect in the improvement of Ad5 biodistribution.

Adenoviral (Ad) vector vaccines represent one of the most promising modern vaccine platforms, and Ad vector vaccines are currently being investigated in human clinical trials for infectious disease and cancer. Our studies have shown that specific targeting of adenovirus to dendritic cells dramatically enhanced vaccine efficacy. However, this was achieve using a molecular adapter, thereby necessitating a two component vector approach. To address the mandates of clinical translation of our strategy, we here sought to accomplish the goal of DC targeting with a single component adenovirus vector approach. To redirect the specificity of Ad vector vaccines, we replaced the Ad fiber knob with fiber-fibritin chimeras fused to DC1.8, a single domain antibody (sdAb) specific for murine immature DC. We engineered a fiber-fibritin-sdAb chimeric molecule using the coding sequence for DC1.8, and then replaced the native Ad5 fiber knob sequence by homologous recombination. The resulting Ad5 virus, Ad5FF1.8, expresses the chimeric fiber-fibritin sdAb chimera. Infection with Ad5FF1.8 dramatically enhances transgene expression in DC 2.4 dendritic cells compared to infection with native Ad5. Ad5FF1.8 infection of bone marrow derived DC demonstrates that Ad5FF1.8 selectively infects immature DC consistent with the known specificity of DC1.8. Thus, sdAb can be used to selectively redirect the tropism of Ad5 vector vaccines, providing the opportunity to engineer Ad vector vaccines that are specifically targeted to DC, or specific DC subsets.

Combined treatment using adenoviral (Ad)-directed enzyme/ prodrug therapy and radiation therapy has the potential to become a powerful method of cancer therapy. We have developed an Ad vector encoding a mutant bacterial cytosine deaminase (bCD) gene (AdbCD-D314A), which has a higher affinity for cytosine than wild-type bCD (bCDwt). The purpose of this study was to evaluate cytotoxicity in vitro and therapeutic efficacy in vivo of the combination of AdbCD-D314A with the prodrug 5-fluorocytosine (5-FC) and ionizing radiation against human glioma. The present study demonstrates that AdbCD-D314A infection resulted in increased 5-FC-mediated cell killing, compared with AdbCDwt. Furthermore, a significant increase in cytotoxicity following AdbCD-D314A and radiation treatment of glioma cells in vitro was demonstrated as compared to AdbCDwt. Animal studies showed significant inhibition of subcutaneous or intracranial tumor growth of D54MG glioma xenografts by the combination of AdbCD-D314A/5-FC with ionizing radiation as compared with either agent alone, and with AdbCDwt/5-FC plus radiation. The results suggest that the combination of AdbCD-D314A/5-FC with radiation produces markedly increased cytotoxic effects in cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. These data indicate that combined treatment with this novel mutant enzyme/prodrug therapy and radiotherapy provides a promising approach for cancer therapy.

Vascular endothelial cells (ECs) are ideal gene therapy targets as they provide widespread tissue access and are the first contact surfaces following intravenous vector administration. Human recombinant adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5) is the most frequently used gene transfer system because of its appreciable transgene payload capacity and lack of somatic mutation risk. However, standard Ad5 vectors predominantly transduce liver but not the vasculature following intravenous administration. We recently developed an Ad5 vector with a myeloid cell-binding peptide (MBP) incorporated into the knob-deleted, T4 fibritin chimeric fiber (Ad.MBP)1.This vector was shown to transduce pulmonary ECs presumably via a vector handoff mechanism. Here we tested the body wide tropism of the Ad.MBP vector, its myeloid cell necessity, and vector-EC expression dose response. Using comprehensive multi-organ co-immunofluorescence analysis, we discovered that Ad.MBP produced widespread EC transduction in lung, heart, kidney, skeletal muscle, pancreas, small bowel, and brain. Surprisingly, Ad.MBP retained hepatocyte tropism albeit at a reduced frequency compared with standard Ad5. While binding specifically to myeloid cells ex vivo, multi-organ Ad.MBP expression was not dependent on circulating monocytes or macrophages. Ad.MBP dose de-escalation maintained full lung targeting capacity but drastically reduced transgene expression in other organs. Swapping the EC-specific ROBO4 for the CMV promoter/enhancer abrogated hepatocyte expression but also reduced gene expression in other organs. Collectively, our multilevel targeting strategy could enable therapeutic biologic production in previously inaccessible organs that initiate the most debilitating or lethal human diseases.

Preclinical and clinical evidence shows that cyclooxygenase-2 (Cox-2)-mediated prostaglandin E 2 (PGE 2 ) overexpression plays an important role in tumor growth, metastasis, and immunosuppression. It has been shown that expression of NAD + -linked 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (15-PGDH), a key enzyme responsible for PGE 2 inactivation, is suppressed in the majority of cancers, including breast and colon carcinoma. We have developed adenoviral vectors (Ad) encoding the 15-PGDH gene under control of the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 1 (VEGFR1/flt-1; Adflt-PGDH) and the Cox-2 (Adcox-PGDH) promoters. The purpose of this study was to investigate cytotoxicity in vitro and therapeutic efficacy in vivo of 15-PGDH-mediated cancer therapy. The levels of PGE 2 and VEGF expression were correlated with PGE 2 receptor and Cox-2 and flt-1 expression in cancer cells. The in vitro study showed that Ad-mediated 15-PGDH expression significantly decreased proliferation and migration of cancer cells. Animal breast and colon tumor therapy studies showed that 15-PGDH gene therapy produced a significant delay in 2LMP and LS174T tumor growth. Combined therapy using 15-PGDH and anti-VEGF antibody (bevacizumab) significantly increased inhibition of growth of LS174T tumor xenografts in comparison with agents alone. These results suggest that 15-PGDHmediated regulation of PGE 2 catabolism in the tumor microenvironment represents a novel approach for therapy of human breast and colon cancer. [Mol Cancer Ther 2009;8(11):3130-9]