scholarly journals Small interfering RNAs based on huntingtin trinucleotide repeats are highly toxic to cancer cells

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea E. Murmann ◽  
Quan Q. Gao ◽  
William Putzbach ◽  
Monal Patel ◽  
Elizabeth T. Bartom ◽  
...  

AbstractTrinucleotide repeat (TNR) expansions in the genome cause a number of degenerative diseases. A prominent TNR expansion involves the triplet CAG in the huntingtin (HTT) gene responsible for Huntington’s disease (HD). Pathology is caused by protein and RNA generated from the TNR regions including small siRNA-sized repeat fragments. An inverse correlation between the length of the repeats in HTT and cancer incidence has been reported for HD patients. We now show that siRNAs based on the CAG TNR are toxic to cancer cells by targeting genes that contain long reverse complimentary TNRs in their open reading frames. Of the 60 siRNAs based on the different TNRs, the 6 members in the CAG/CUG family of related TNRs are the most toxic to both human and mouse cancer cells. siCAG/CUG TNR-based siRNAs induce cell deathin vitroin all tested cancer cell lines and slow down tumor growth in a preclinical mouse model of ovarian cancer with no signs of toxicity to the mice. We propose to explore TNR-based siRNAs as a novel form of anti-cancer reagents.

Author(s):  
Domenico Mattoscio ◽  
Elisa Isopi ◽  
Alessia Lamolinara ◽  
Sara Patruno ◽  
Alessandro Medda ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Innovative therapies to target tumor-associated neutrophils (PMN) are of clinical interest, since these cells are centrally involved in cancer inflammation and tumor progression. Resolvin D1 (RvD1) is a lipid autacoid that promotes resolution of inflammation by regulating the activity of distinct immune and non-immune cells. Here, using human papilloma virus (HPV) tumorigenesis as a model, we investigated whether RvD1 modulates PMN to reduce tumor progression. Methods Growth-curve assays with multiple cell lines and in vivo grafting of two distinct HPV-positive cells in syngeneic mice were used to determine if RvD1 reduced cancer growth. To investigate if and how RvD1 modulates PMN activities, RNA sequencing and multiplex cytokine ELISA of human PMN in co-culture with HPV-positive cells, coupled with pharmacological depletion of PMN in vivo, were performed. The mouse intratumoral immune cell composition was evaluated through FACS analysis. Growth-curve assays and in vivo pharmacological depletion were used to evaluate anti-tumor activities of human and mouse monocytes, respectively. Bioinformatic analysis of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database was exploited to validate experimental findings in patients. Results RvD1 decreased in vitro and in vivo proliferation of human and mouse HPV-positive cancer cells through stimulation of PMN anti-tumor activities. In addition, RvD1 stimulated a PMN-dependent recruitment of classical monocytes as key determinant to reduce tumor growth in vivo. In human in vitro systems, exposure of PMN to RvD1 increased the production of the monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), and enhanced transmigration of classical monocytes, with potent anti-tumor actions, toward HPV-positive cancer cells. Consistently, mining of immune cells infiltration levels in cervical cancer patients from the TCGA database evidenced an enhanced immune reaction and better clinical outcomes in patients with higher intratumoral monocytes as compared to patients with higher PMN infiltration. Conclusions RvD1 reduces cancer growth by activating PMN anti-cancer activities and encouraging a protective PMN-dependent recruitment of anti-tumor monocytes. These findings demonstrate efficacy of RvD1 as an innovative therapeutic able to stimulate PMN reprogramming to an anti-cancer phenotype that restrains tumor growth.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 1005
Author(s):  
Olga Chervyakova ◽  
Elmira Tailakova ◽  
Nurlan Kozhabergenov ◽  
Sandugash Sadikaliyeva ◽  
Kulyaisan Sultankulova ◽  
...  

Capripoxviruses with a host range limited to ruminants have the great potential to be used as vaccine vectors. The aim of this work was to evaluate attenuated sheep pox virus (SPPV) vaccine strain NISKHI as a vector expressing several genes. Open reading frames SPPV020 (ribonucleotide kinase) and SPPV066 (thymidine kinase) were selected as sites for the insertion of foreign genes. Two integration plasmids with expression cassette were designed and constructed. Recombinant SPPVs expressing an enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) (rSPPV(RRΔ)EGFP and rSPPV(TKΔ)EGFP), Foot-and-mouth disease virus capsid protein (VP1), and Brucella spp. outer membrane protein 25 (OMP25) (rSPPV(RRΔ)VP1A-(TKΔ)OMP25) were generated under the transient dominant selection method. The insertion of foreign genes into the SPPV020 and SPPV066 open reading frames did not influence the replication of the recombinant viruses in the cells. Successful foreign gene expression in vitro was assessed by luminescent microscopy (EGFP) and Western blot (VP1 and OMP25). Our results have shown that foreign genes were expressed by rSPPV both in permissive (lamb testicles) and non-permissive (bovine kidney, saiga kidney, porcine kidney) cells. Mice immunized with rSPPV(RRΔ)VP1A-(TKΔ)OMP25 elicited specific antibodies to both SPPV and foreign genes VP1 and OMP25. Thus, SPPV NISKHI may be used as a potential safe immunogenic viral vector for the development of polyvalent vaccines.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-15
Author(s):  
Ainaz Mihanfar ◽  
Niloufar Targhazeh ◽  
Shirin Sadighparvar ◽  
Saber Ghazizadeh Darband ◽  
Maryam Majidinia ◽  
...  

Abstract Doxorubicin (DOX) is an effective chemotherapeutic agent used for the treatment of various types of cancer. However, its poor solubility, undesirable side effects, and short half-life have remained a challenge. We used a formulation based on graphene oxide as an anticancer drug delivery system for DOX in MCF-7 breast cancer cells, to address these issues. In vitro release studies confirmed that the synthesized formulation has an improved release profile in acidic conditions (similar to the tumor microenvironment). Further in vitro studies, including MTT, uptake, and apoptosis assays were performed. The toxic effects of the nanocarrier on the kidney, heart and liver of healthy rats were also evaluated. We observed that the DOX-loaded carrier improved the cytotoxic effect of DOX on the breast cell line compared to free DOX. In summary, our results introduce the DOX-loaded carrier as a potential platform for in vitro targeting of cancer cells and suggest further studies are necessary to investigate its in vivo anti-cancer potential.


2006 ◽  
Vol 80 (8) ◽  
pp. 4179-4182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Rivailler ◽  
Amitinder Kaur ◽  
R. Paul Johnson ◽  
Fred Wang

ABSTRACT A pathogenic isolate of rhesus cytomegalovirus (rhCMV 180.92) was cloned, sequenced, and annotated. Comparisons with the published rhCMV 68.1 genome revealed 8 open reading frames (ORFs) in isolate 180.92 that are absent in 68.1, 10 ORFs in 68.1 that are absent in 180.92, and 34 additional ORFs that were not previously annotated. Most of the differences appear to be due to genetic rearrangements in both isolates from a region that is frequently altered in human CMV (hCMV) during in vitro passage. These results indicate that the rhCMV ORF repertoire is larger than previously recognized. Like hCMV, understanding of the complete coding capacity of rhCMV is complicated by genomic instability and may require comparisons with additional isolates in vitro and in vivo.


Blood ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 93 (9) ◽  
pp. 2936-2944 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramachandran Ramalingam ◽  
Shahin Rafii ◽  
Stefan Worgall ◽  
Douglas E. Brough ◽  
Ronald G. Crystal

Abstract Although endothelial cells are quiescent and long-lived in vivo, when they are removed from blood vessels and cultured in vitro they die within days to weeks. In studies of the interaction of E1−E4+ replication–deficient adenovirus (Ad) vectors and human endothelium, the cells remained quiescent and were viable for prolonged periods. Evaluation of these cultures showed that E1−E4+ Ad vectors provide an “antiapoptotic” signal that, in association with an increase in the ratio of Bcl2 to Bax levels, induces the endothelial cells to enter a state of “suspended animation,” remaining viable for at least 30 days, even in the absence of serum and growth factors. Although the mechanisms initiating these events are unclear, the antiapoptoic signal requires the presence of E4 genes in the vector genome, suggesting that one or more E4 open reading frames of subgroup C Ad initiate a “pro-life” program that modifies cultured endothelial cells to survive for prolonged periods.


2020 ◽  
Vol 870 ◽  
pp. 172912 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ehsan Rezaie ◽  
Jafar Amani ◽  
Ali Bidmeshki Pour ◽  
Hamideh Mahmoodzadeh Hosseini

Cancers ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomomi Sanomachi ◽  
Shuhei Suzuki ◽  
Keita Togashi ◽  
Asuka Sugai ◽  
Shizuka Seino ◽  
...  

Spironolactone, a classical diuretic drug, is used to treat tumor-associated complications in cancer patients. Spironolactone was recently reported to exert anti-cancer effects by suppressing DNA damage repair. However, it currently remains unclear whether spironolactone exerts combinational effects with non-DNA-damaging anti-cancer drugs, such as gemcitabine and epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs). Using the cancer cells of lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, and glioblastoma, the combinational effects of spironolactone with gemcitabine and osimertinib, a third-generation EGFR-TKI, were examined in vitro with cell viability assays. To elucidate the underlying mechanisms, we investigated alterations induced in survivin, an anti-apoptotic protein, by spironolactone as well as the chemosensitization effects of the suppression of survivin by YM155, an inhibitor of survivin, and siRNA. We also examined the combinational effects in a mouse xenograft model. The results obtained revealed that spironolactone augmented cell death and the suppression of cell growth by gemcitabine and osimertinib. Spironolactone also reduced the expression of survivin in these cells, and the pharmacological and genetic suppression of survivin sensitized cells to gemcitabine and osimertinib. This combination also significantly suppressed tumor growth without apparent adverse effects in vivo. In conclusion, spironolactone is a safe candidate drug that exerts anti-cancer effects in combination with non-DNA-damaging drugs, such as gemcitabine and osimertinib, most likely through the suppression of survivin.


TECHNOLOGY ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 04 (01) ◽  
pp. 60-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles C. Sharkey ◽  
Jiahe Li ◽  
Sweta Roy ◽  
Qianhui Wu ◽  
Michael R. King

This study outlines a drug delivery mechanism that utilizes two independent vehicles, allowing for delivery of chemically and physically distinct agents. The mechanism was utilized to deliver a new anti-cancer combination therapy consisting of piperlongumine (PL) and TRAIL to treat PC3 prostate cancer and HCT116 colon cancer cells. PL, a small-molecule hydrophobic drug, was encapsulated in poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles. TRAIL was chemically conjugated to the surface of liposomes. PL was first administered to sensitize cancer cells to the effects of TRAIL. PC3 and HCT116 cells had lower survival rates in vitro after receiving the dual nanoparticle therapy compared to each agent individually. In vivo testing involved a subcutaneous mouse xenograft model using NOD-SCID gamma mice and HCT116 cells. Two treatment cycles were administered over 48 hours. Higher apoptotic rates were observed for HCT116 tumor cells that received the dual nanoparticle therapy compared to individual stages of the nanoparticle therapy alone.


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