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Therapeutic Expression of an Anti-Death Receptor 5 Single-Chain Fixed-Variable Region Prevents Tumor Growth in Mice

¹ National Laboratory of Medical Molecular Biology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China; ² Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; ³ Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine and ⁴ Gene Therapy Laboratory, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; and ⁵ Institute of Molecular Medicine, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou, China

Requests for reprints: Dexian Zheng, National Laboratory of Medical Molecular Biology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, 5 Dong Dan San Tiao, Beijing 100005, China. Phone: 86-10-6529-6409; Fax: 86-10-6510-5102; E-mail: zhengdx{at}pumc.edu.cn or Ruian Xu, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Huagiao University, Quanzhuo, China. E-mail: ruianxu{at}hgu.edu.cn

The clinical use of the single-chain fixed-variable (scFv) fragments of recombinant monoclonal antibodies as credible alternatives for classic therapeutic antibodies has two limitations: rapid blood clearance and inefficient local expression of functional molecules. In attempt to address these issues, we have developed a novel gene therapy protocol in which the anti-death receptor 5 (DR5) scFv fragments were either in vitro expressed in several tumor cell lines, or in vivo expressed in mice, using recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV)–mediated gene transfer. Viral transduction using the rAAV-S3C construct, which encodes a scFv molecule (S3C scFv) specific to DR5, led to stable expression in tumor cell lines and showed apoptosis-inducing activity in vitro, which could be inhibited by recombinant DR5 but not by DR4. A single i.m. injection of rAAV-S3C virus in nude mice resulted in stable expression of DR5-binding S3C scFv proteins in mouse sera for at least 240 days. Moreover, the expression of S3C scFv was associated with significant suppression of tumor growth and the increase of tumor cell apoptosis in previously established s.c. human lung LTEP-sml and liver Hep3B tumor xenografts. (Cancer Res 2006; 66(24): 11946-53)