ABSTRACTAn adenovirus vector encoding murine Fas ligand (mFasL) under an inducible control was derived. In vivo ectopic expression of mFasL in murine livers induced an inflammatory cellular infiltration. Furthermore, ectopic expression of mFasL by myocytes did not allow prolonged vector-mediated transgene expression. Thus, ectopic expression of functional mFasL in vector-transduced cells does not appear to confer, by itself, an immunoprivileged site sufficient to mitigate adenovirus vector immunogenicity.

Gene therapy to correct defective genes requires efficient gene delivery and long-term gene expression. Realization of both goals with available vector systems has so far not been achieved. As a novel approach to solve this problem, we have developed a chimeric viral vector system that exploits favorable aspects of both adenoviral and retroviral vectors. In this schema, adenoviral vectors induce target cells to function as transient retroviral producer cells in vivo. The progeny retroviral vector particles can then effectively achieve stable transduction of neighboring cells. In this system, the nonintegrative adenoviral vector is rendered functionally integrative via the intermediate generation of an induced retroviral producer cell. Such chimeric vectors may now allow realization of the requisite goals for specific gene therapy applications.

erbB-2 is known to be overexpressed in several human malignancies including lung cancer. Because of its role in neoplastic transformation as well as its association with poor prognosis, this oncogene has been targeted through various anti-cancer methodologies. In this regard, we have recently demonstrated that erbB-2-overexpressing ovarian tumor cell lines transfected with an endoplasmic reticulum form of an anti-erbB-2 single-chain antibody undergo a specific cytotoxicity through the induction of apoptosis. Since certain forms of lung cancer are also associated with overexpression of erbB-2, we evaluated the use of this novel therapeutic in this context. For these studies, several human lung adenocarcinoma cell lines were stably and transiently transfected with the anti-erbB-2 sFv gene. We demonstrate here that the anti-erbB-2 sFv can cause specific cytotoxicity in lung cancer cells. As a first step toward clinical translation of this strategy, we constructed a replication-deficient recombinant adenoviral vector expressing the anti-erbB-2 sFv construct. We further demonstrate that our anti-erbB-2 sFv-encoding adenoviral vector can accomplish high levels of cytotoxicity in lung cancer cells. Based on these results, it is proposed that this strategy of oncoprotein ablation may have use in the treatment of some forms of human lung cancer.

Specific killing of erbB-2-overexpressing tumor cells can be achieved using expression of an intracellular antibody directed against the erbB-2 oncoprotein. We have developed a strategy using a recombinant adenovirus encoding an anti-erbB-2 single chain antibody to achieve targeted tumor cell killing in vivo and can show significantly prolonged survival of animals carrying a human ovarian carcinoma tumor burden within their peritoneal cavities. This strategy of gene therapy for ovarian carcinoma offers the potential to achieve highly specific, targeted killing of human tumor cells and thus establishes the rationale to undertake human clinical trials on this basis.

One strategy used for gene therapy of cancer is molecular chemotherapy. This approach is based on selective expression of an encoded toxin in cancer cells to achieve their eradication. One potential advantage of this strategy derives from a phenomenon, termed the bystander effect, whereby only a fraction of cells needs to be transduced to eradicate a tumor population. Despite the theoretical advantages of this phenomenon, it has only been described in a few cellular targets. Therefore, we undertook strategies to develop a molecular chemotherapy approach for ovarian carcinoma utilizing the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSV-TK) gene. Initially, we established that human ovarian carcinoma cell lines could be transduced at high efficiency with adenoviral vectors encoding reporter genes. We next determined that the human ovarian cell line SKOV3 could exhibit bystander killing by stably transducing it to express HSV-TK and performing cell mixing experiments with varying percentages of HSV-TK-expressing and HSV-TK-nonexpressing cells. Based on these findings, we constructed a recombinant adenovirus encoding HSV-TK and utilized it to induce human ovarian carcinoma cell lines to the sensitizing effects of ganciclovir. In addition, primary cultures of ovarian carcinoma cells were found to be highly transducible with recombinant adenoviral vectors and could be induced to the sensitizing effects of ganciclovir after induction of HSV-TK expression by the adenoviral vector. These studies indicate that molecular chemotherapy using a recombinant adenoviral vector expressing HSV-TK may provide a rational strategy for human ovarian carcinoma.