Newcastle disease virus expressing an angiogenic inhibitor exerts an enhanced therapeutic efficacy in colon cancer model

PLoS One. 2022 Apr 5;17(4):e0264896. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0264896. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Newcastle disease virus (NDV)-mediated gene therapy is a promising new approach for treatment of cancer but shows limited anti-angiogenesis. VEGF-Trap plays a vital role in anti-angiogenesis. To enhance the anti-tumor effect of NDV, VEGF-Trap gene was incorporated into the genome of rNDV in this study (named rNDV-VEGF-Trap). Results showed that rNDV-VEGF-Trap reduced cell growth ratio by 85.37% and migration ratio by 87.9% in EA.hy926 cells. In vivo studies, rNDV-VEGF-Trap reduced tumor volume and weight of CT26-bearing mice by more than 3 folds. Immunohistochemistry analysis of CD34 showed rNDV-VEGF-Trap significantly decreased the number of vascular endothelial cells in the tumor tissues. Moreover, Western blot analysis demonstrated that treatment with rNDV-VEGF-Trap significantly decreased the phosphorylation levels of AKT, ERK1/2 and STAT3 and increased the expression levels of P53, BAX and cleaved caspase-3 in the tumor tissue. In addition, to evaluate the toxicity of rNDV-VEGF-Trap, serum chemistries were analyzed. The results showed that rNDV-VEGF-Trap caused insignificant changes of creatinine levels, alanine aminotransferase and aspartate transaminase. Furthermore, administration of rNDV-VEGF-Trap did not cause the diarrhoea, decreased appetite, weight decrease and haemorrhage of the experimental mice. These data suggest that rNDV-VEGF-Trap exhibits an enhanced inhibition of CT26-bearing mice by enhancing anti-angiogenesis and apoptosis and may be a potential candidate for carcinoma therapy especially for colon cancer.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Angiogenesis Inhibitors / metabolism
  • Animals
  • Colonic Neoplasms* / drug therapy
  • Colonic Neoplasms* / genetics
  • Endothelial Cells
  • Genetic Therapy
  • Mice
  • Newcastle disease virus* / genetics

Substances

  • Angiogenesis Inhibitors

Grants and funding

this work was supported by National Key R&D program of China (2017YFD0501102) and Education Department of Heilongjiang province, (TSTAU-R2018017).