Targeted deletion of miR-132/-212 impairs memory and alters the hippocampal transcriptome.

miR-132 and miR-212 are structurally related microRNAs that have been found to exert powerful modulatory effects within the central nervous system (CNS). Notably, these microRNAs are tandomly processed from the same noncoding transcript, and share a common seed sequence: thus it has been difficult to assess the distinct contribution of each microRNA to gene expression within the CNS. Here, we employed a combination of conditional knockout and transgenic mouse models to examine the contribution of the miR-132/-212 gene locus to learning and memory, and then to assess the distinct effects that each microRNA has on hippocampal gene expression. Using a conditional deletion approach, we show that miR-132/-212 double-knockout mice exhibit significant cognitive deficits in spatial memory, recognition memory, and in tests of novel object recognition. Next, we utilized transgenic miR-132 and miR-212 overexpression mouse lines and the miR-132/-212 double-knockout line to explore the distinct effects of these two miRNAs on the transcriptional profile of the hippocampus. Illumina sequencing revealed that miR-132/-212 deletion increased the expression of 1138 genes; Venn analysis showed that 96 of these genes were also downregulated in mice overexpressing miR-132. Of the 58 genes that were decreased in animals overexpressing miR-212, only four of them were also increased in the knockout line. Functional gene ontology analysis of downregulated genes revealed significant enrichment of genes related to synaptic transmission, neuronal proliferation, and morphogenesis, processes known for their roles in learning, and memory formation. These data, coupled with previous studies, firmly establish a role for the miR-132/-212 gene locus as a key regulator of cognitive capacity. Further, although miR-132 and miR-212 share a seed sequence, these data indicate that these miRNAs do not exhibit strongly overlapping mRNA targeting profiles, thus indicating that these two genes may function in a complex, nonredundant manner to shape the transcriptional profile of the CNS. The dysregulation of miR-132/-212 expression could contribute to signaling mechanisms that are involved in an array of cognitive disorders.

Human dendritic cells efficiently phagocytose adenoviral oncolysate but require additional stimulation to mature.

Oncolytic adenoviruses are emerging agents for treatment of cancer by tumor-restricted virus infection and cell lysis. Clinical trials have shown that oncolytic adenoviruses are well tolerated in patients but also that their antitumor activity needs improvement. A promising strategy toward this end is to trigger systemic and prolonged antitumor immunity by adenoviral oncolysis. Antitumor immune activation depends in large part on antigen presentation and T cell activation by dendritic cells (DCs). Thus, it is likely that the interaction of lysed tumor cells with DCs is a key determinant of such "oncolytic vaccination." Our study reveals that human DCs effectively phagocytose melanoma cells at late stages of oncolytic adenovirus infection, when the cells die showing preferentially features of necrotic cell death. Maturation, migration toward CCL19 and T cell stimulatory capacity of DCs, crucial steps for immune induction, were, however, not induced by phagocytosis of oncolysate, but could be triggered by a cytokine maturation cocktail. Therefore, oncolytic adenoviruses and adenoviral oncolysate did not block DC maturation, which is in contrast to reports for other oncolytic viruses. These results represent a rationale for inserting immunostimulatory genes into oncolytic adenovirus genomes to assure critical DC maturation. Indeed, we report here that adenoviral transduction of melanoma cells with CD40L during oncolysis triggers the maturation of human DCs with T cell stimulatory capacity similar to DCs matured by cytokines. We conclude that triggering and shaping DC-induced antitumor immunity by oncolytic adenoviruses "armed" with immunostimulatory genes holds promise for improving the therapeutic outcome of viral oncolysis in patients.

Selectivity and efficiency of late transgene expression by transcriptionally targeted oncolytic adenoviruses are dependent on the transgene insertion strategy.

Key challenges facing cancer therapy are the development of tumor-specific drugs and potent multimodal regimens. Oncolytic adenoviruses possess the potential to realize both aims by restricting virus replication to tumors and inserting therapeutic genes into the virus genome, respectively. A major effort in this regard is to express transgenes in a tumor-specific manner without affecting virus replication. Using both luciferase as a sensitive reporter and genetic prodrug activation, we show that promoter control of E1A facilitates highly selective expression of transgenes inserted into the late transcription unit. This, however, required multistep optimization of late transgene expression. Transgene insertion via internal ribosome entry site (IRES), splice acceptor (SA), or viral 2A sequences resulted in replication-dependent expression. Unexpectedly, analyses in appropriate substrates and with matching control viruses revealed that IRES and SA, but not 2A, facilitated indirect transgene targeting via tyrosinase promoter control of E1A. Transgene expression via SA was more selective (up to 1,500-fold) but less effective than via IRES. Notably, we also revealed transgene-dependent interference with splicing. Hence, the prodrug convertase FCU1 (a cytosine deaminase-uracil phosphoribosyltransferase fusion protein) was expressed only after optimizing the sequence surrounding the SA site and mutating a cryptic splice site within the transgene. The resulting tyrosinase promoter-regulated and FCU1-encoding adenovirus combined effective oncolysis with targeted prodrug activation therapy of melanoma. Thus, prodrug activation showed potent bystander killing and increased cytotoxicity of the virus up to 10-fold. We conclude that armed oncolytic viruses can be improved substantially by comparing and optimizing strategies for targeted transgene expression, thereby implementing selective and multimodal cancer therapies.

Transgene expression by oncolytic adenoviruses is modulated by E1B19K deletion in a cell type-dependent manner.

Major strategies to increase oncolytic adenovirus efficacy, as required for clinical applications, are enhancing oncolysis by acceleration of virus release/spread and "arming" by insertion of therapeutic genes. We investigated whether these strategies can be effectively combined as it has been speculated that the arming approach rather benefits from delayed cell lysis and extended time for protein synthesis. We report that deleting adenoviral E1B19K results in an apoptosis-dependent early viral release and thus enhanced oncolysis in several tumor cells, but inhibits virus replication in others. In the former case, apoptosis induction and early cell lysis did not interfere with late transgene expression. Thus, transgene expression was dramatically increased over time due to better virus spread. In A549 cells, transgene expression by the E1B19K(-) virus at 5 days post-infection was higher than for the E1B19K(+) virus at 10 days. These properties may be of critical importance in patients, where time for virus spread is limited.

Systematic comparative protein expression profiling of clear cell renal cell carcinoma: a pilot study based on the separation of tissue specimens by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis.

Proteome-based technologies represent powerful tools for the analysis of protein expression profiles, including the identification of potential cancer candidate biomarkers. Thus, here we provide a comprehensive protein expression map for clear cell renal cell carcinoma established by systematic comparative two-dimensional gel electrophoresis-based protein expression profiling of 16 paired tissue systems comprising clear cell renal cell carcinoma lesions and corresponding tumor-adjacent renal epithelium using overlapping narrow pH gradients. This approach led to the mapping of 348 distinct spots corresponding to 248 different protein identities. By implementing restriction criteria concerning their detection frequency and overall regulation mode, 28 up- and 56 down-regulated single target spots were considered as potential candidate biomarkers. Based on their gene ontology information, these differentially expressed proteins were classified into distinct functional groups and according to their cellular distribution. Moreover, three representative members of this group, namely calbindin, gelsolin, and heart fatty acid-binding protein, were selected, and their expression pattern was analyzed by immunohistochemistry using tissue microarrays. Thus, this pilot study provides a significant update of the current renal cell carcinoma map and defines a number of differentially expressed proteins, but both their potential as candidate biomarkers and clinical relevance has to be further explored in tissues and for body fluids like serum and urine.

Generation of human dendritic cells that simultaneously secrete IL-12 and have migratory capacity by adenoviral gene transfer of hCD40L in combination with IFN-gamma.

Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen presenting cells and have key functions in the initiation of immune responses. Hence, antigen-loaded DCs have become important tools for active-specific immunotherapy. In addition to defining strategies for antigen loading, effective T-cell activation by DCs will depend on vaccination protocols that facilitate DC migration to secondary lymphoid tissues and expression of costimulatory molecules and cytokines. Adenoviral gene transfer has been successfully implemented for genetic antigen loading of DCs. In this study, we exploit an adenoviral vector encoding human CD40 ligand (CD40L), Ad5hCD40L, to establish DCs that feature both migration potential and prolonged secretion of the key T-helper 1 cytokine interleukin-12p70 (IL-12p70). Transduction of human monocyte-derived DCs with Ad5hCD40L resulted in efficient CD40L expression, which was detected only intracellularly, and in secretion of IL-12p70. Addition of recombinant interferon (IFN)-gamma shortly after DC transduction substantially increased IL-12p70 secretion. Maturation of DCs was achieved with a standard cytokine maturation cocktail (MC) containing prostaglandin E2 which, however, abolished IL-12p70 secretion by Ad5hCD40L-transduced cells in the absence of IFN-gamma. Only DCs treated with Ad5hCD40L, MC, and IFN-gamma migrated efficiently towards CCL19 and continued to secrete IL-12p70. Finally, DCs transduced with both Ad5hCD40L and an adenoviral vector encoding the melanoma antigen MelanA/MART-1 and treated with MC and IFN-gamma efficiently primed naive autologous CD8+ T cells into antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte. This strategy to generate DCs that exert both migration capacity and prolonged IL-12p70 secretion after intracellular CD40L expression and IFN-gamma treatment has the potential to further improve current DC vaccination protocols.

Insulated hsp70B' promoter: stringent heat-inducible activity in replication-deficient, but not replication-competent adenoviruses.

BACKGROUND: Key to the realization of gene therapy is the development of efficient and targeted gene transfer vectors. Therapeutic gene transfer by replication-deficient or more recently by conditionally replication-competent/oncolytic adenoviruses has shown much promise. For specific applications, however, it will be advantageous to provide vectors that allow for external control of gene expression. The efficient cellular heat shock system in combination with available technology for focused and controlled hyperthermia suggests heat-regulated transcription control as a promising tool for this purpose. METHODS AND RESULTS: We investigated the feasibility of a short fragment of the human hsp70B' promoter, with and without upstream insulator elements, for the regulation of transgene expression by replication-deficient or oncolytic adenoviruses. Two novel adenoviral vectors with an insulated hsp70B' promoter were developed and showed stringent heat-inducible gene expression with induction ratios up to 8000-fold. In contrast, regulation of gene expression from the hsp70B' promoter without insulation was suboptimal. In replication-competent/oncolytic adenoviruses regulation of the hsp70B' promoter was lost specifically during late replication in permissive cells and could not be restored by the insulators. CONCLUSIONS: We developed novel adenovirus gene transfer vectors that feature improved and stringent regulation of transgene expression from the hsp70B' promoter using promoter insulation. These vectors have potential for gene therapy applications that benefit from external modulation of therapeutic gene expression or for combination therapy with hyperthermia. Furthermore, our study reveals that vector replication can deregulate inserted cellular promoters, an observation which is of relevance for the development of replication-competent/oncolytic gene transfer vectors.

Modulation of viability and maturation of human monocyte-derived dendritic cells by oncolytic adenoviruses.

Adenoviral oncolysis is a promising new modality for treatment of cancer based on selective viral replication in tumor cells. However, tumor cell killing by adenoviral oncolysis needs to be improved to achieve therapeutic benefit in the clinic. Towards this end, the activation of anti-tumor immunity by adenoviral oncolysis might constitute a potent mechanism for systemic killing of uninfected tumor cells, thereby effectively complementing direct tumor cell killing by the virus. Knowledge of anti-tumor immune induction by adenoviral oncolysis, however, is lacking mostly due to species-specificity of adenovirus replication, which has hampered studies of human oncolytic adenoviruses in animals. We suggest the analysis of interactions of oncolytic adenoviruses with human immune cells as rational basis for the implementation of adenoviral oncolysis-induced anti-tumor immune activation. The goal of our study was to investigate how oncolytic adenoviruses affect human dendritic cells (DCs), key regulators of innate and adoptive immunity that are widely investigated as tumor vaccines. We report that melanoma-directed oncolytic adenoviruses, like replication-deficient adenoviruses but unlike adenoviruses with unrestricted replication potential, are not toxic to monocyte-derived immature DCs and do not block DC maturation by external stimuli. Of note, this is in contrast to reports for other viruses/viral vectors and represents a prerequisite for anti-tumor immune activation by adenoviral oncolysis. Furthermore, we show that these oncolytic adenoviruses alone do not or only partially induce DC maturation. Thus additional signals are required for optimal immune activation. These could be delivered, for example, by inserting immunoregulatory transgenes into the oncolytic adenovirus genome.

Combining adenoviral oncolysis with temozolomide improves cell killing of melanoma cells.

Oncolytic adenoviruses are emerging agents for treatment of cancer by tumor-restricted virus replication, cell lysis and virus spread. Clinical studies with first generation oncolytic adenoviruses have revealed that an increased potency is warranted in order to achieve therapeutic efficacy. One approach towards this end is to combine adenoviral oncolysis with chemotherapy. Here, a fundamental requirement is that chemotherapy does not interfere with adenovirus replication in cancer cells. We have previously developed a melanoma-targeted oncolytic adenovirus, Ad5/3.2xTyr, which features tyrosinase promoter regulated replication and enhanced cell entry into melanoma cells. In this study, we investigated a combination treatment of melanoma cells with Ad5/3.2xTyr and temozolomide (TMZ), which produces the same active metabolite as Dacarbazine/DTIC, the standard chemotherapy for advanced melanoma. We report that TMZ does not inhibit adenovirus replication in melanoma cells. Additive or synergistic cell killing of melanoma cells, dependent on the cell line used, was observed. Enhanced cell binding was not responsible for synergism of adenoviral oncolysis and TMZ treatment. We rather observed that higher numbers of virus genomes are produced in TMZ-treated cells, which also showed a cell cycle arrest in the G2 phase. Our results have important implications for the clinical implementation of adenoviral oncolysis for treatment of malignant melanoma. It suggests that such studies are feasible in the presence of TMZ or DTIC chemotherapy and recommends the investigation of a viro-chemo combination therapy.

NK cell activation in visceral leishmaniasis requires TLR9, myeloid DCs, and IL-12, but is independent of plasmacytoid DCs.

Natural killer (NK) cells are sentinel components of the innate response to pathogens, but the cell types, pathogen recognition receptors, and cytokines required for their activation in vivo are poorly defined. Here, we investigated the role of plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs), myeloid DCs (mDCs), Toll-like receptors (TLRs), and of NK cell stimulatory cytokines for the induction of an NK cell response to the protozoan parasite Leishmania infantum. In vitro, pDCs did not endocytose Leishmania promastigotes but nevertheless released interferon (IFN)-alpha/beta and interleukin (IL)-12 in a TLR9-dependent manner. mDCs rapidly internalized Leishmania and, in the presence of TLR9, produced IL-12, but not IFN-alpha/beta. Depletion of pDCs did not impair the activation of NK cells in L. infantum-infected mice. In contrast, L. infantum-induced NK cell cytotoxicity and IFN-gamma production were abolished in mDC-depleted mice. The same phenotype was observed in TLR9(-/-) mice, which lacked IL-12 expression by mDCs, and in IL-12(-/-) mice, whereas IFN-alpha/beta receptor(-/-) mice showed only a minor reduction of NK cell IFN-gamma expression. This study provides the first direct evidence that mDCs are essential for eliciting NK cell cytotoxicity and IFN-gamma release in vivo and demonstrates that TLR9, mDCs, and IL-12 are functionally linked to the activation of NK cells in visceral leishmaniasis.

Tropism modification of adenovirus vectors by peptide ligand insertion into various positions of the adenovirus serotype 41 short-fiber knob domain.

Recombinant adenoviruses have emerged as promising agents in therapeutic gene transfer, genetic vaccination, and viral oncolysis. Therapeutic applications of adenoviruses, however, would benefit substantially from targeted virus cell entry, for example, into cancer or immune cells, as opposed to the broad tropism that adenoviruses naturally possess. Such tropism modification of adenoviruses requires the deletion of their natural cell binding properties and the incorporation of cell binding ligands. The short fibers of subgroup F adenoviruses have recently been suggested as a tool for genetic adenovirus detargeting based on the reduced infectivity of corresponding adenovectors with chimeric fibers in vitro and in vivo. The goal of our study was to determine functional insertion sites for peptide ligands in the adenovirus serotype 41 (Ad41) short fiber knob. With a model peptide, CDCRGDCFC, we could demonstrate that ligand incorporation into three of five analyzed loops of the knob, namely, EG, HI, and IJ, is feasible without a loss of fiber trimerization. The resulting adenovectors showed enhanced infectivity for various cell types, which was superior to that of viruses with the same peptide fused to the fiber C terminus. Strategies to further augment gene transfer efficacy by extension of the fiber shaft, insertion of tandem copies of the ligand peptide, or extension of the ligand-flanking linkers failed, indicating that precise ligand positioning is pivotal. Our study establishes that internal ligand incorporation into a short-shafted adenovirus fiber is feasible and suggests the Ad41 short fiber with ligand insertion into the top (IJ loop) or side (EG and HI loops) of the knob domain as a novel platform for genetic targeting of therapeutic adenoviruses.

Minute numbers of contaminant CD8+ T cells or CD11b+CD11c+ NK cells are the source of IFN-gamma in IL-12/IL-18-stimulated mouse macrophage populations.

Macrophages were reported to be strong producers of interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) after stimulation by interleukin 12 (IL-12) plus IL-18, which gave rise to a novel concept of auto-crine macrophage activation. Here, we show that peritoneal exudate and bone marrow-derived mouse macrophages generated by conventional techniques contain small quantities of CD11b(+)CD11c(+)CD31(+)DX5(+)NK1.1(+) natural killer (NK) cells or CD3(+)CD8(+)TCRbeta(+) T cells, respectively. Intracellular cytokine staining, purification of macrophages by sorting, and the analysis of macrophages from alymphoid RAG2(-/-)gamma-chain(-/-) mice revealed that the high amount of IFN-gamma protein in the supernatants of unseparated IL-12/IL-18-stimulated macrophage populations originates exclusively from the contaminating lymphoid cells. Notably, IL-12/IL-18 still induced IFN-gamma mRNA in highly purified macrophages from wild-type mice and in macrophages from RAG2(-/-)gamma-chain(-/-) mice, whereas nuclear translocation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 4 (STAT4) and production of IFN-gamma protein were no longer detectable. These results question the concept of autocrine macrophage activation by secreted IFN-gamma, suggest differences in the expression of IFN-gamma mRNA and protein between macrophages and lymphoid cells, and illustrate that the limited purity of most myeloid cell populations (