1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of gene engineering, and more particularly to an oncolytic adenovirus for treating human tumors and the applications thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Adenovirus vector Ad-TD, a kind of tumor-targeted vector created by genetic engineering technology, is a type 5 adenovirus of which genes E1A-CR2, E1B19K, and E3gp-19K are removed, and the promoter sequence of E3gp-19K is retained. The vector has a superior anti-tumor efficacy compared to the first generation of onclytic adenovirus. Interleukin 12 (IL12) is well-known as a stimulatory factor for Natural Killer Cell and a maturation factor for Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes, and it is a cytokine heterodimer connected by disulfide bonds, and the two subunits are p35 and p40. p35 is produced by T cells, B cells, NK cells, monocytes and other cells; while p40 is mainly produced by activated monocytes and B cells. The sequences of the p35 gene and the p40 gene of human and mouse have been determined, and they have bioactivities as growth factors for NK cells and T cells both in vivo and in vitro. Further studies have shown that IL12 can effectively inhibit or completely eliminate tumors in mice. However, the half-life of IL12 in vivo is very short, so only continuous injection can maintain the therapeutic efficacy, requiring a large amount of IL-12 (1-10 μg/day). Administration of high doses of recombinant IL-12 protein always leads to severe toxicity. Currently, IL12 gene therapy using retroviral vector has been conducted in some laboratories, and its anti-tumor efficacy has been proven. However, direct utilization of IL-12 gene therapy cannot eliminate established tumors and the spontaneous metastases of tumors due to the limited expression of IL12 using the non-replicative vector.
In view of the above-described problems, it is one objective of the invention to provide an adenovirus Ad-TD-hIL12 for targeting treatment of human tumors. The virus can be used as a genetically engineered agent for treating tumors, as the viral vector selectively replicates within tumor cells but not normal cells, and it is safe and highly efficient.
The type 5 human adenovirus vector includes an expression cassette with the p35 and p40 subunit genes encoding human IL12 and the virus can selectively replicate in tumor cells and express functional human protein IL12 after infection of tumor cells. These tumors comprise solid tumors, metastatic tumors, and diffusely spreading tumors. The viral vector can selectively amplify in tumor cells, lyse tumor cells, release large amount of tumor-associated antigens, and cooperate with the expressed cytokine human IL12 to effectively induce tumor-specific immunity, which can kill the uninfected tumor cells locally and at remote areas comprising micro-metastatic tumor cells. The highly expressed IL12 in tumor cells can also prevent neovascularization.
To achieve the above objective, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention, there is provided a tumor-targeted adenovirus vector Ad-TD-hIL12. The vector is a type 5 human adenovirus of group C, of which three intrinsic genes E1A-CR2, E1B19K, and E3gp-19K are removed (Therefore named Ad-Triple Deletion, Ad-TD) and the E3B gene that facilitates the expression of viral genes and enhances the persistence of the viruses in vivo is retained. Furthermore, the endogenous promoter of E3gp-19K is retained to drive the expression of the exogenous therapeutic gene—human IL12.
IL12 is a heterodimer comprising a p35 subunit and a p40 subunit, each subunit is encoded by its corresponding gene, and the coding DNA sequences for p35 and p40 subunits of IL12 can be obtained from human cells. The human IL12 sequence in this invention comprises the coding cDNA sequences of IL12 derived from human lymphocytes, in vitro synthesized sequences, and recombinant intact or modified coding sequences with anti-tumor efficacy. These sequences comprise but are not limited to point mutation, and internal, 5′ and/or 3′ end deletion of DNA sequence of human IL12. The homologous DNA sequence or the encoded polypeptide showing anti-tumor efficacy or the sequences inhibiting tumors that are different from the human IL12 sequence in the present invention are also included.
In a class of this embodiment, corresponding amino acid sequences for the p35 and p40 subunit genes are SEQ NO: 1 and SEQ NO: 2 respectively, corresponding nucleotide sequences are SEQ NO: 3 and SEQ NO: 4 respectively. It should be noted that, the sequences of p35 and p40 subunits optionally comprises homologous sequences or polypeptides that are different from the human IL12 sequence, but show anti-tumor efficacy or inhibit tumors, including but not limited to SEQ NO: 5 and 6.
In a class of this embodiment, the human tumors are all types of human solid tumors.
In another aspect, the invention provides a method for treating human tumors comprising administering the Ad-TD-hIL12 to a patient in need thereof.
In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, the invention provides a method for constructing the tumor-targeted oncolytic adenovirus Ad-TD-hIL12 for treating human tumors, comprising the following steps:
1) Collecting peripheral blood from healthy donor, isolating and culturing lymphocytes in the presence of phytohemagglutination (PHA), extracting RNA and preparing cDNA by reverse transcription, cloning p35 and p40 subunit cDNA of human IL 12 by PCR in the presence of primers including specific enzymatic restriction sites, linking the p35 and p40 subunit gene fragments to yield an intact hIL12 gene fragment, introducing the intact hIL12 gene fragment into a cloning vector to yield pORF-hIL12, digesting the pORF-hIL12 plasmid using two enzymes of Nco I and Nhe I, and blunting the resultant hIL12 gene fragment using T4 DNA polymerase for further cloning;
2) Digesting an adenovirus vector pAd-TD using a blunt end enzyme (SWAI, which is localized between Ad E3 6.9K and the residual region of of E3gp-19K), inserting the hIL12 gene into the region by ligation, and identifying the recombinant vectors with correct insertion by PCR; and
3) Transfecting the recombinant vector into 293 cells to produce the infectious viral vector Ad-TD-hIL12.
The tumor-targeted adenovirus Ad-TD-hIL12 in this invention has been preserved in the China Center for Type Culture Collection, the serial number for the preservation is CCTCC NO: V201031, and the preservation day is Dec. 1, 2010.
Advantages of the invention are summarized as follows:
In
For further illustration of the invention, experiments detailing an oncolytic adenovirus for treating tumors are described below. It should be noted that the following examples are intended to describe and not to limit the invention.
Structure of a tumor-targeted adenovirus Ad-TD-hIL12 (corresponding to human IL12 gene) and Ad-TD-mIL12 (corresponding to mouse IL12 gene), are shown in
(1) First, the DNA fragments at both sides of E1A-CR2 region to be deleted were obtained by PCR, the upstream sequence is named as left arm and the downstream sequence is named as right arm, the left arm and the right arm were ligated with a plasmid pSuperShuttle according to the virus gene sequence by genetic engineering method to construct a shuttle vector of E1A-CR2;
The adenovirus vector Ad5 and the shuttle vector of E1A-CR2 were transformed into BJ5183 for a homologous recombination at a ratio of 1: 2-10; PCR was performed to identify the positive recombinant bacteria, the recombinant plasmid was extracted and a Ad5R-CR2 viral vector comprising E1A-CR2 depletion is obtained;
(2) The shuttle vector of E1B19K is constructed by using the same method as for constructing the shuttle vector of E1A-CR2, afterwards it was recombined with the viral vector of Ad5R-CR2, and an Ad5R-CR2-E1B19K viral vector with dual depletion of E1A CR2 and E1B19K was created;
(3) PCR was carried out to amplify the sequences at both sides of the coding region of E3gp-19K gene, the left arm starts from −1087 bp and ends at 0 bp, comprising the promoter of E3gp-19K gene; the right arm starts from 1146 bp downstream the stop codon of E3gp-19K gene, the two arms were connected with enzymatic restriction sites to construct a shuffle vector which was further recombined with the viral vector Ad5ΔR-CR2-E1B19K to obtain an adenovirus vector of pAd-TD with triple depletion of three coding genes E1A-CR2, E1B19K, and E3gp-19K. In addition, pAd-TD has two SwaI restriction enzyme sites in the deleted region of E3gp 19K. Thereafter, PacI digested pAd-TD was transfected into 293 cells to produce infectious tumor-targeted adenovirus vector of Ad-TD-gene;
(4) Peripheral blood from healthy donor was collected. The lymphocytes were isolated and cultured in the presence of phytohemagglutination (PHA), the RNA was extracted and reverse-transcripted into cDNA. The primers comprising enzymatic restriction sites were used for cloning p35 and p40 subunit cDNA of human IL 12 (or short IL12 or mIL 12) by PCR, the p35 and p40 subunit gene fragments were linked by DNA ligase to yield an intact hIL12 gene fragment, which was further inserted into cloning T vector and named as pORF-hIL12 or pORF-shIL12. The plasmids were digested with Nco I and Nhe I to release the coding cDNA fragment of hIL12 or shIL12 or mIL 12 for the next step of cloning;
(5) The deletion region of E3gp-19K of the adenovirus vector of pAd-TD is digested with a blunt end enzyme (SwaI), the hIL12 or shIL12 cDNA coding fragment released from pORF-h/mIL12 vector was inserted into the enzymatic site of the viral vector of pAd-TD in accordance with the genomic sequence, and PCR was carried out to identify the recombinant vector with a correct insertion; and
(6) The recombinant vector with correct insertion was digested with PacI and the viral fragments were transfected into the 293 cells to produce the infectious viral vector Ad-TD-h/mIL12 or Ad-TD-shIL 12.
1×106 HPD1-nr cells (pancreatic cancer cells of Syrian hamsters) were subcutaneously inoculated into the right upper back of the 5-6 week old Syrian hamsters(n=7/group). When the tumors approached a volume of 160 mm3, intratumoral injection of PBS, dl1520, Ad-TD-RFP, Ad-TD-mIL12 and Ad-TD-hIL12 was carried out, 5×109 pt/injection for three times, and the tumor growth and the survival of animals were monitored.
1×106 HPD1-nr cells were subcutaneously inoculated into the right upper back of 5-6 week old Syrian hamsters(n=7/group), when the tumors approached a volume of 160 mm3, intratumoral injection of PBS, dl1520, Ad-TD-RFP, Ad-TD-mIL12 and Ad-TD-hIL12 was carried out respectively, 5×109 pt/injection, once a day for a total of five times (the procedure is same as the clinical application for licensed oncolytic adenovirus H101, but the dosage is 20 times lower than the commonly used oncolytic adenovirus in Syrian hamster tumor model), and then the tumor sizes and animal survival were monitored.
The results are shown in
The Syrian hamster renal cancer HAK model was employed. 5×106 of HAK cells were subcutaneously inoculated into the right upper back of 5-6 week old Syrian hamsters (n=7/group). When the tumors approached a relatively larger size (230 mm3), different viruses of lower dosages (1×10E9 pt/time, five treatments) were used, and intratumoral injection of PBS, dl1520 and Ad-TD-hIL12 was carried out. Regular measurement of the tumor sizes and the tumor elimination rates was performed. The results are shown in
Sixty days after they became tumor-free, the animals originally bearing HPD1-nr tumors (from example 3) were subcutaneously re-challenged on the opposite flank with either 5×106 of Kidney cancer HAK cells or 2×106 of HPD1-nr cells. Seven days later, both types of cells produced tumors in all the animals. On the 13th day, the tumors of HPD1-nr disappeared in five of seven animals and the animals remained tumor-free until at least 103 days after re-challenge. The percentage of tumor-protection against the cell type of the original tumors in the animals treated with Ad-TD-hIL12 was 71.43%. However, there was no protection against re-challenge with tumors of kidney cancer HAK cells (as shown in
Five to six week-old Syrian hamsters (n=5/group) were intraperitoneally injected with 5×106 HPD1-nr cells. The treatments were initiated 7 days later. Different reagents including PBS group, Ad-TD-hIL12 1×109 pt/time, Ad-TD-hIL12 2.5×109 particles and Ad-TD-hIL12 5×109 particles were intraperitoneally injected once daily for five consecutive days, and the general health condition and survival were observed. Cachexia, large amount of ascites and multiple metastases were detected in the PBS-treated group and the Ad-TD-hIL12 treatment groups at a lower dose (1×109 particles and 2.5×109 particles) 37 days after treatment, whereas treatment with Ad-TD-hIL12 at 5×109 particles significantly prolonged the survival time of the animals without adverse effects such as hepatic failure (as shown in
According to procedures in Example 1, a short nucleotide sequences of p40 (short-p40, s-p40) and p35 were cloned. The p35 and s-p40 subunit cDNA fragments were ligated to obtain the shIL-12 (short hIL12) gene fragment, and then pORF-shIL-12 and Ad-TD-shIL12 were constructed. The comparison in amino acid sequences of p40 and short-p40 was presented in
Human lung cancer A549 cells were infected with Ad-TD-shIL12. The total proteins were extracted 24 hours after infection. The expression of shIL12 was detected by Western blotting. The results show that shIL12 is expressed in A549 cells, which is lower than the intact p70 (the human IL12), as shown in
2×106 HCPC1 cells (head and neck neoplasm of Syrian hamsters) were subcutaneously inoculated into the right upper back of 5-6 weeks old Syrian hamsters (n=7/group). When the tumors reached a volume of 160 mm3, PBS, Ad-TD-RFP, and Ad-TD-shIL12 were intratumorally injected respectively at a dosage of 5×109particles once daily for a total of five times. The tumor sizes and animal survival were measured.
The results are shown in
Five to six week-old Syrian hamsters (n=7/group) were intraperitoneally injected with 5×106 HPD1-nr cells. The treatments were carried out 7 days later. Different reagents including PBS, Ad-TD-shIL12 and Ad-TD-RFP, were intraperitoneally injected once daily for five consecutive days, and then the survival time of the animals were observed. The virus dosage was 1×1010 pt/injection. The animals were euthanized at 0, 7 and 14 days after treatments, and the weights of tumor tissues and the ascitic volumes were measured in the peritoneal cavity.
While particular embodiments of the invention have been shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made without departing from the invention in its broader aspects, and therefore, the aim in the appended claims is to cover all such changes and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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201110050046.0 | Mar 2011 | CN | national |
This application is a continuation-in-part of International Patent Application No. PCT/CN2012/071754 with an international filing date of Feb. 29, 2012, designating the United States, now pending, and further claims priority benefits to Chinese Patent Application No. 201110050046.0 filed on Mar. 2, 2011. The contents of all of the aforementioned applications, including any intervening amendments thereto, are incorporated herein by reference. Inquiries from the public to applicants or assignees concerning this document or the related applications should be directed to: Matthias Scholl P.C., Attn.: Dr. Matthias Scholl Esq., 14781 Memorial Drive, Suite 1319, Houston, Tex. 77079.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | PCT/CN2012/071754 | Feb 2012 | US |
Child | 14016149 | US |