A suicide gene therapy combining the improvement of cyclophosphamide tumor cytotoxicity and the development of an anti-tumor immune response

Curr Gene Ther. 2014;14(3):236-46. doi: 10.2174/1566523214666140424152734.

Abstract

Gene-directed enzyme prodrug therapy (GDEPT) consists in targeted delivery to tumor cells of a suicide gene responsible for in situ conversion of a prodrug into cytotoxic metabolites. One of the major limitations of this strategy in clinical application was the poor prodrug activation capacity of suicide gene. We built a highly efficient suicide gene capable of bioactivating the prodrug cyclophosphamide (CPA) by fusing a CYP2B6 triple mutant with NADPH cytochrome P450 reductase (CYP2B6TM-RED). Expression of this fusion gene via a recombinant lentivirus (LV) vector converted resistant human (A549) and murine (TC1) pulmonary cell lines into CPA-susceptible cell lines. We tested the efficiency of our GDEPT strategy in C57Bl/6 immunocompetent mice, using TC1 cells expressing the HPV-16 E6/E7 oncoproteins. In mice bearing tumors composed only of TC1-CYP2B6TM-RED cells, four CPA injections (140 mg/Kg once a week) completely eradicated the tumors for more than two months. Tumors having only 25% of TC1-CYP2B6TM-RED cells were also completely eradicated by five CPA injections, demonstrating a major in vivo bystander effect. Moreover, surviving mice were rechallenged with parental TC1 cells. The tumors regressed spontaneously 7 days after cell inoculation or grew more slowly than in control naive mice due to a strong immune response mediated by anti-E7CD8(+)T cells. These data suggest that combining the CYPB6TM-RED gene with CPA may hold promise as a highly effective treatment for solid tumors in humans.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacology*
  • Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cyclophosphamide / pharmacology*
  • Female
  • Genes, Transgenic, Suicide*
  • Genetic Therapy / methods*
  • Genetic Vectors / genetics
  • Humans
  • Lentivirus / genetics
  • Lung Neoplasms / drug therapy
  • Lung Neoplasms / therapy
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • NADPH-Ferrihemoprotein Reductase / genetics
  • NADPH-Ferrihemoprotein Reductase / metabolism
  • Prodrugs / pharmacology

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Prodrugs
  • Cyclophosphamide
  • NADPH-Ferrihemoprotein Reductase