Hyperthermia-mediated gene therapy approach for cancer

描述（由申请人提供）：在癌症基因治疗成为临床现实之前，必须克服两个主要障碍：肿瘤特异性治疗基因激活和基因治疗载体有效地递送到肿瘤块中。特异性激活癌细胞中治疗基因的能力是基因治疗与传统癌症治疗的区别所在。在之前的资助周期中，我们在开发一种新的基因治疗方法方面取得了实质性进展，通过这种方法，治疗基因可以通过热疗来调节。我们已经证明，治疗基因可以通过热疗在肿瘤块中以非常有效和有针对性的方式进行调节，在实验肿瘤模型中具有令人印象深刻的抗肿瘤功效。然而，我们仍然面临着基因治疗载体递送效率低下的问题，这可能严重阻碍我们原本非常有前途的策略的应用。在这个应用中，我们希望在之前成功的基础上继续改进我们的高温调节基因治疗方法。我们将处理基因治疗的监管问题和递送问题。将采取双管齐下的办法。一方面，我们将继续探索新的基因调控方法，以进一步改善/增强我们的热诱导治疗性基因激活策略。另一方面，我们将通过开发可在肿瘤组织中选择性复制的热调节复制能力腺病毒载体来解决基因传递问题。具体来说，我们将有两个具体目标。在具体目标1中，我们将开发一种新的基因调控策略，可以进一步增强高温激活的治疗性基因表达。为此，我们将尝试设计一种新的基于Cre-lox的不可逆基因开关，该开关可以潜在地增强热激活基因治疗的调控和表达。在特定目标2中，我们将开发在高温或缺氧控制下进行病毒复制的条件复制腺病毒载体。我们将设计重组腺病毒载体，使其能够在高温处理的肿瘤细胞中选择性复制，或在缺氧肿瘤细胞中选择性复制。众所周知的抗血管生成基因内皮抑素将被设计成载体。然后将评估载体单独或与热疗和/或电离辐射联合使用的抗肿瘤效果。在新的融资周期结束时，我们希望在高温介导的基因治疗方法的交付和调控方面取得重大进展，从而使其更接近临床人类癌症治疗。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There are two major hurdles that must be overcome before cancer gene therapy becomes a clinical reality: tumor-specific therapeutic gene activation and efficient delivery of gene therapy vectors into the tumor mass. The ability to specifically activate therapeutic genes in cancer cells is what differentiates gene therapy from conventional cancer therapies. In the previous funding cycle, we have made substantial progress in developing a novel gene therapy approach by which therapeutic genes can be regulated by hyperthermia. We have shown that therapeutic genes can be regulated by hyperthermia in a very efficient and targeted fashion in the tumor mass with impressive anti-tumor efficacy in experimental tumor models. However, we are still faced with the problem of inefficient delivery of the gene therapy vectors, which can serious hinder the application of our otherwise very promising strategy. In this application, we want to build upon our previous successes and continue to improve our hyperthermia-regulated gene therapy approach. We will deal with both the regulation issue and the delivery issue for gene therapy. A two-pronged approach will be employed. On the one hand, we will continue to explore new gene regulation approaches that may further improve/enhance our heat-induced therapeutic gene activation strategy. On the other hand, we will tackle the gene delivery issue by developing hyperthermia-regulated replication competent adenovirus vectors that can selectively replicate in the tumor mass. In particular, we will have two specific aims. In specific aim 1, we will develop a novel gene regulation strategy that may further enhance hyperthermia-activated therapeutic gene expression. For this specific aim, we will attempt to design a novel Cre-lox based irreversible genetic switch that can potentially enhance the regulation and expression of heat-activated gene therapy. In specific aim 2, we will develop conditionally replicative adenovirus vectors with virus replication under the control of hyperthermia or hypoxia. We will engineer recombinant adenovirus vectors that can selectively replicate in hyperthermia-treated tumor cells or those that can selectively replicate in hypoxic tumor cells. The well-known anti-angiogenic gene endostatin will be engineered into the vectors. The vectors will then be evaluated for their anti-tumor efficacy either alone or in combination with hyperthermia and/or ionizing radiation. At the end of the new funding cycle, we hope to make significant advancement in both the delivery and the regulation of the hyperthermia-mediated gene therapy approach, thereby making it even closer to clinical human cancer treatment.