Suicide Gene Therapy of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Cervical Carcinoma In Vitro

Methods Mol Biol. 2019:1895:177-184. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-8922-5_14.

Abstract

Suicide gene therapy induced by the Herpes Simplex Virus thymidine kinase/ganciclovir (HSV-tk/GCV) system has been utilized to successfully treat various cancers. We describe TransfeX-mediated transfection of pCMV.Luc into HeLa cervical carcinoma and HSC-3, FaDu, and H357 oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cell lines in the presence of 10% serum. This method has proved to be highly efficient, with low nonspecific cytotoxicity. The plasmid pNGVL1-tk encoding HSV-tk under the control of the CMV promoter was delivered to the cells in vitro via TransfeX, a cationic liposomal reagent, followed by treatment with ganciclovir. The Alamar Blue cell viability assay was used to determine levels of the suicide effect.

Keywords: Cervical carcinoma; Ganciclovir; Herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase; Oral squamous cell carcinoma; Transfection.

MeSH terms

  • Antineoplastic Agents / therapeutic use
  • Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / drug therapy
  • Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / therapy
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Female
  • Ganciclovir / metabolism
  • Ganciclovir / therapeutic use*
  • Genes, Transgenic, Suicide*
  • Genetic Therapy / methods*
  • Genetic Vectors
  • HeLa Cells
  • Humans
  • Mouth Neoplasms / drug therapy
  • Mouth Neoplasms / therapy
  • Neoplasms / drug therapy
  • Neoplasms / therapy*
  • Plasmids
  • Prodrugs / metabolism
  • Prodrugs / therapeutic use
  • Simplexvirus / enzymology
  • Thymidine Kinase / metabolism*
  • Transfection
  • Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / drug therapy
  • Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / therapy
  • Viral Proteins / metabolism

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Prodrugs
  • Viral Proteins
  • Thymidine Kinase
  • Ganciclovir