λ Phage nanobioparticle expressing apoptin efficiently suppress human breast carcinoma tumor growth in vivo

PLoS One. 2013 Nov 22;8(11):e79907. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0079907. eCollection 2013.

Abstract

Using phages is a novel field of cancer therapy and phage nanobioparticles (NBPs) such as λ phage could be modified to deliver and express genetic cassettes into eukaryotic cells safely in contrast with animal viruses. Apoptin, a protein from chicken anemia virus (CAV) has the ability to specifically induce apoptosis only in carcinoma cells. We presented a safe method of breast tumor therapy via the apoptin expressing λ NBPs. Here, we constructed a λ ZAP-CMV-apoptin recombinant NBP and investigated the effectiveness of its apoptotic activity on BT-474, MDA-MB-361, SKBR-3, UACC-812 and ZR-75 cell lines that over-expressing her-2 marker. Apoptosis was evaluated via annexin-V fluorescent iso-thiocyanate/propidium iodide staining, flow-cytometric method and TUNEL assay. Transfection with NBPs carrying λ ZAP-CMV-apoptin significantly inhibited growth of all the breast carcinoma cell lines in vitro. Also nude mice model implanted BT-474 human breast tumor was successfully responded to the systemic and local injection of untargeted recombinant λ NBPs. The results presented here reveal important features of recombinant λ nanobioparticles to serve as safe delivery and expression platform for human cancer therapy.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Bacteriophage lambda / genetics*
  • Breast Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Capsid Proteins / genetics*
  • Cell Division / genetics*
  • Female
  • Flow Cytometry
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • Mice, Nude
  • Nanoparticles*
  • Recombinant Proteins / genetics

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Capsid Proteins
  • Recombinant Proteins
  • VP3 protein, Chicken anemia virus

Grants and funding

This work was done without any grant from governments and is funded only by the authors. The material of the experiments in part was prepared from the corresponding authors' 2 years income and in part gifted from the other authors and institutions. The work is performed in the Stem cell laboratories, Research Center for Science and Technology in Medicine (RCSTiM), Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Tehran, Iran.