Herceptin: A First Assault on Oncogenes that Launched a Revolution.

This year's Lasker Clinical Research Award honors H. Michael Shepard, Dennis J. Slamon, and Axel Ullrich for their invention of Herceptin, the first monoclonal antibody that blocks a cancer-causing protein, and for its development as a life-saving therapy for women with breast cancer.

Crystal structure of nanoKAZ: The mutated 19 kDa component of Oplophorus luciferase catalyzing the bioluminescent reaction with coelenterazine.

The 19 kDa protein (KAZ) of Oplophorus luciferase is a catalytic component, that oxidizes coelenterazine (a luciferin) with molecular oxygen to emit light. The crystal structure of the mutated 19 kDa protein (nanoKAZ) was determined at 1.71 Å resolution. The structure consists of 11 antiparallel ß-strands forming a ß-barrel that is capped by 4 short α-helices. The structure of nanoKAZ is similar to those of fatty acid-binding proteins (FABPs), even though the amino acid sequence similarity was very low between them. The coelenterazine-binding site and the catalytic site for the luminescence reaction might be in a central cavity of the ß-barrel structure.

High-level transgene expression mediated by the piggyBac transposon enhances transgenic therapeutic effects in cervical cancer xenografts.

The piggyBac (PB) transposon is a recently identified, active and flexible transgene vector, combining the advantages of non-viral gene delivery with genomic integration and persistent transgene expression. In this study, we utilized the PB transposon to carry the herpes simplex thymidine kinase (HSV-tk) and red fluorescent protein (mRFP1) reporter genes into the HeLa cervical cancer cell line or tumor xenografts of cervical cancer. Our data showed that HSV-tk and mRFP1 were expressed in HeLa cells and tumor xenografts three weeks after intratumoral injection. The mRNA and protein levels of HSV-tk and mRFP1 were increased by using the PB transposon vector. Our system also demonstrated that sensitivity of transfected HeLa cells to the pro-drug ganciclovir (GCV) was enhanced in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, our data indicated that the enhanced transgenic therapeutic effect was strongly associated with high-level transgene expression mediated by the PB transposon. Our results suggest that applying the PB transposon in HSV-tk gene delivery and GCV treatment is a promising gene therapy strategy in the treatment of cervical cancer.

Gene therapy of pancreatic cancer with green fluorescent protein and tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand fusion gene expression driven by a human telomerase reverse transcriptase promoter.

BACKGROUND: Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) induces apoptosis in malignant cells but not in normal cells. Ad/g-TRAIL, an adenoviral vector in which expression of green fluorescent protein (GFP) and TRAIL is driven by a human telomerase reverse transcriptase promoter, has shown promise as a targeted antitumor agent. METHODS: To investigate the effects of TRAIL gene therapy on pancreatic cancer, BxPC-3, MIA-PaCa-2, Panc-1, and ASPC-1 cells were treated with Ad/g-TRAIL. Transfection and protein expression were determined by using immunoblotting and identification of GFP with fluorescent microscopy and flow cytometry. Cell viability was determined by proliferation assay. Cell-cycle analysis and quantification of caspase-3 were used to identify apoptosis. The in vivo efficacy of Ad/g-TRAIL was characterized in a novel red fluorescent protein murine model of MIA-PaCa-2 pancreatic cancer. RESULTS: Cells treated with Ad/g-TRAIL expressed GFP and exhibited apoptotic morphology within 2 days of treatment. Treatment with this vector in vitro resulted in less cell viability, increased caspase-3 activity, and a greater apoptotic fraction than treatment with controls. In vivo, treatment with Ad/g-TRAIL significantly suppressed tumor growth. CONCLUSIONS: TRAIL gene therapy induces apoptosis of pancreatic tumor cells both in vitro and in vivo and is a promising therapy in the treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Adenovirus-mediated angiopoietin-1 gene therapy enhances skin flap survival.

This experimental study investigates the feasibility of pretreating the abdominal skin of a rat with subdermal injections of adenovirus encoding angiopoietin-1 in order to improve postoperative survival of the skin flap. An epigastric skin flap was used as the model in this study. Rats received subdermal injections of adenovirus encoding either angiopoietin-1 (treatment group) or green fluorescent protein (treatment control), or they received no treatment (control group). Subdermal injections were made 2 days prior to surgery, and skin flap survival was assessed 7 days afterwards as a percentage of necrotic area over total skin flap area. The treatment group which received adenovirus-mediated angiopoietin-1 had a median percent necrotic area of 11.01%, a significant decrease from the control group, which had a median percent necrotic area of 32.24% (P < 0.001). The results of this study suggest the possibility of using adenovirus-mediated angiopoietin-1 gene therapy to promote therapeutic angiogenesis in patients who undergo reconstructive procedures.

Long-term tumor-free survival from treatment with the GFP-TRAIL fusion gene expressed from the hTERT promoter in breast cancer cells.

We evaluated anti-tumor activity and toxic effect of an adenoviral vector expressing the GFP/TRAIL fusion gene from the hTERT promoter (designated Ad/gTRAIL) on human breast cancer cell lines and on normal human breast cells. Treatment with Ad/gTRAIL elicited high levels of transgene expression and apoptosis in a variety of breast cancer cell lines. Furthermore, treatment with Ad/gTRAIL was effective in killing breast cancer lines resistant to doxorubicin or soluble TRAIL protein. In contrast, only minimal transgene expression and toxicity was detected in normal human primary mammary epithelial cells after treatment with this vector. An in vivo study further showed that the intralesional administration of Ad/gTRAIL effectively suppressed the growth of human tumor xenografts derived from both doxorubicin-sensitive and doxorubicin-resistant breast cancer lines. Specifically, about 50% of animals bearing doxorubicin-sensitive and doxorubicin-resistant breast cancer xenografts showed complete tumor regression and remained tumor-free for over 5 months. These results suggest that the adenovirus encoding the GFP/TRAIL gene driven by the hTERT promoter has potential application in cancer therapy.