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Advances in Brief |
CNRS UPR 9079, 94801 Villejuif, France [S. F., A. C., S. A-S-A., C. M., A. H-B., F. C.], and INSERM U403, Faculté Laennec, 69372 Lyon, France [J. G., P. C.]
| ABSTRACT |
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| Introduction |
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It has recently been shown that the introduction in a mammalian cell of double-stranded oligoribonucleotides, also called siRNA, triggers the degradation of the endogenous mRNA to which the siRNA hybridizes (5) . This mechanism is highly sequence specific and allows to turn off the expression of a target protein (6 , 7) . Many studies demonstrated the high efficiency and versatility of RNA interference in cell cultures. Some authors developed vectors or viruses to produce siRNA in cells (8) . The in vivo regulation of a gene by RNA interference has been obtained either using these vectors or viruses (9) or using the so-called hyperpressure technique (10 , 11) , which drives siRNA mainly in the liver and would not be possible to use in humans. In this work, we demonstrate that low doses of siRNA administrated by a systemic route penetrate into tumors and control the expression of target genes to produce phenotypic effects.
The aim of the present work was to determine whether blocking the ability of tumor cells to secrete high levels of VEGF by the in vivo administration of siRNA could diminish or prevent the triggering of resistance to the antitumor effects of TSP1.
| Materials and Methods |
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siRNA.
The siRNA (sense and antisense strands) were purchased from MWG Biotech (Ebersberg, Germany). The sense strands sequences were the following: VEGF, 5'-AUGUGAAUGCAGACCAAAGAA-TT; CONT, 5'-GAUAGCAAUGACGAAUGCGUA-TT; and LUC, 5'-AACGUACGCGGAAUACUUCGA-TT. In vitro transfections were performed using the Transit-TKO polymer/lipid from Mirus (Madison, WI) as recommended. For 6 x 106 cells in 10 ml of medium, 2 µg of siRNA were used. Cells were washed 24 h after transfection.
Tumorigenicity Assays.
cJ4 or JT8 cells were injected s.c. in PBS (106 cells/site) into the hind quarters of four to six female Swiss nu/nu mice, 46 weeks old (Iffa Credo, LArbresle, France) for each tested condition. Each experiment was repeated at least twice. When stated, dox (100 µg/ml) was added to the drinking supply of the animals to repress TSP1 and luciferase expressions. The drinking supply was changed three times a week. Tumor volume was calculated as v = L x l2 x 0.52, where L and l represent the larger and the smaller tumor diameter measured daily. For in vivo injections, each animal was injected daily with 50 (i.p., i.v., or s.c. injections) or 10 µl (intratumoral injections) of PBS containing 3 µg of siRNA (125 µg/kg/day). The care of the animals was provided in the animal quarters of the Institut André Lwoff in Villejuif according to the institutional guidelines.
Immunohistochemistry, Scoring of Microvessel Density.
TSP1, VEGF, and CD31 detection and scoring of blood vessels density in tumors were performed as described previously (3)
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Luciferase Activity.
Tumors were homogenized with a polytron homogenizer in cell culture lysis reagent (Promega). Protein concentration was measured using BSA as standard with the Bio-Rad DC protein assay. Luciferase activity was quantified in a luminometer (Analytical Luminescence Laboratories) using 1 mM luciferine as substrate.
VEGF Quantification.
VEGF was quantified in cell supernatants or in tumor homogenates using an ELISA kit for mouse VEGF from R&D. Cells were transfected with VEGF- or control-siRNA. Twenty-four h later, cells were replated at the same density and conditioned media collected on day 4 after transfection. Cells were replated at equal density on day 4 and media collected on day 6 and finally replated on day 11 and media collected on day 13. Values are expressed as percentage of the VEGF content in the CONT-siRNA-transfected cells medium collected on the same day. VEGF in tumor homogenates is expressed as pg/mg of total protein.
| Results |
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Transfection of VEGFsiRNA in cJ4 rat fibrosarcoma cell line (12)
induced a marked reduction in VEGF synthesis and secretion (Fig. 1a
, bottom panel, and b) as compared with cells transfected with the CONTsiRNA (Fig. 1a
, left panel). The secreted VEGF level was still reduced by 50% 13 days after transfection. Untransfected, CONTsiRNA-, or VEGFsiRNA-transfected cells were engrafted s.c. to nude mice and tumor growth monitored (Fig. 1c)
. On day 12, animals were sacrificed and tumors collected. Immunodetection of VEGF in the tumors showed a marked reduction in the VEGF expression of tumors growing from VEGFsiRNA-transfected cells (Fig. 1d
, right panel) as compared with controls. This reduction was accompanied by a 67% reduction in tumor volume. These data indicated that the reduction in VEGF synthesis obtained by the siRNA transfection in vitro resulted in the expected biological effects on VEGF production and tumor growth in vivo. The tumor growth was unaffected by the transfection of control siRNA. The logarithmic regression analysis of the tumor growth curves (Fig. 1c
, inset) shows that the onset of tumors that express only residual VEGF levels were delayed as compared with controls but eventually grew with similar growth rates.
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200 mm3, mice were separated into groups of three, and each mouse received a single injection of LUCsiRNA or CONTsiRNA. siRNA was administered either via the tail vein i.v., i.p., or s.c. (3 µg in 50 µl of saline in each case) or directly in the tumor (3 µg in 20 µl of saline). Three days later, animals were sacrificed, tumors collected, homogenized, and luciferase activity and protein content were determined. The three systemic administration procedures induced
50% inhibition of the luciferase expression (Fig. 2)
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To test the efficiency of i.p. administration of VEGFsiRNA on VEGF expression that is triggered by the in vivo development of resistance to TSP1 expression, finally, in a fourth group (D), the two treatments were combined: JT8 tumors were grown in animals receiving no dox and injected with VEGFsiRNA. The inhibition of the tumor growth observed in this group was not better than that obtained with VEGFsiRNA alone or TSP1 alone (Fig. 3a)
. We suspected that TSP1 might be reducing the accessibility of the siRNA to the tumors by limiting tumor vascularization. Luciferase expression was then measured in the tumors from groups C and D. As expected, in the absence of dox treatment, the luciferase activity, which parallels TSP1 expression, was increased 6.8-fold in tumors from group D as compared with group A. Although the animals in group C were injected with LUCsiRNA, no decrease in the luciferase activity was observed in tumors from this group, and only a 23% reduction in VEGF expression was triggered by VEGFsiRNA treatment in group D as compared with group C (Fig. 3b)
. This strongly suggested that the siRNA was not penetrating the tumor properly. This result points out the difficulties likely to be encountered whenever one adds a systemic treatment to an antiangiogenic therapy and offers an explanation for why tumors injected daily with VEGFsiRNA are eventually able to grow.
Synergistic Effects of TSP1 and VEGF siRNA to Inhibit Tumor Growth.
To circumvent this difficulty of delivering systemic siRNA to tumors in the presence of TSP1, JT8 cells were transfected with VEGFsiRNA or LUCsiRNA and injected to nude mice receiving no dox treatment, thus expressing TSP1. On day 16, the mean tumor volume of the control group was 799 ± 270 mm3 (Fig. 4)
, very close to the values observed in the previous experiment (Fig. 3a
, group C). This volume was reduced by 86% when the cells were unable to produce VEGF efficiently because of the presence of VEGFsiRNA (mean tumor volume, 111 ± 70 mm3). In these barely palpable tumors, the VEGFsiRNA induced an 82% reduction in VEGF expression (9.8 ± 2.7 versus 56.4 ± 23.9 pg/mg protein). Cells that grew in vivo despite these treatments could be untransfected cells, cells re-expressing VEGF once the siRNA effect is diluted by exponential cell divisions or cells triggering angiogenesis by elaborating other angiogenic factors such as basic fibroblast growth factor. The tumors in this group reached 100 mm3 15.2 ± 1.2 days after injection of the tumor cells, indicating additive effects of TSP1 and VEGFsiRNA to delay the onset of tumors. Remarkably, the logarithmic regression analysis of the growth curves show that VEGFsiRNA also reduced the growth rate of the tumors (Fig. 4
, inset). The doubling time of tumors treated with TSP1 alone (41.9 ± 2.7 h) was increased by 65% when VEGFsiRNA were used in combination with TSP1 (69.3 ± 10.3 h). This combination thus not only delays by 6 days the onset of the tumors but also significantly slows down their growth, a parameter that was not affected by the administration of one single treatment.
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| Discussion |
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| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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1 Supported by grants from the Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer (to F. C.), the Groupement des Entreprises Françaises dans la Lutte contre le Cancer (to F. C.), and the Fondation de lAvenir (to F. C.). ![]()
2 These authors contributed equally to this work. ![]()
3 To whom requests for reprints should be addressed, at Institut André Lwoff, CNRS UPR9079, 7 rue Guy Môquet, 94801 Villejuif, France. E-mail: fcabon{at}vjf.cnrs.fr ![]()
4 The abbreviations used are: TSP1, thrombospondin-1; VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor; siRNA, small interfering RNA; dox, doxycycline. ![]()
Received 4/16/03. Accepted 5/23/03.
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