title: Treatment of experimental glioma by administration of adenoviral vectors expressing Fas ligand.
abstract: Fas ligand (FasL) is a cytokine, produced by activated T cells and NK cells, that triggers apoptosis of Fas-positive target cells including human glioma cells. As shown here, in vitro infection of rat F98 and human LN18 glioma cell lines with recombinant adenovirus (rAd) expressing FasL cDNA under control of the cytomegalovirus promoter (rAd-CMV-FasL) induced striking cytotoxicity in Fas-positive glioma cell lines but not in the Fas-negative F98 glioma subline F98/ZH. The extent of FasL-mediated cytotoxic effects outranged the expectations based on expression of beta-galactosidase (beta-Gal) by F98 cells infected with a control virus expressing the lacZ gene (rAd-CMV-lacZ). The detection of FasL bioactivity in supernatants of infected cells provides evidence of a bystander mechanism involving the cytotoxic action of FasL on uninfected cells. In F98 tumor-bearing rats, infection with rAd-CMV-FasL increased the mean survival time by 50% compared with infection with rAd-CMV-lacZ or untreated controls. These data suggest that viral vector transduction of the FasL gene could be part of a successful glioma gene therapy.
authors.affiliation: Section of Clinical Immunology, University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: B B
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Ambar
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Frei
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Malipiero
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Morelli
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Castro
authors.forename: P R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Lowenstein
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fontana
mesh_terms: D000260:Adenoviruses, Human; D000818:Animals; D004351:Drug Resistance; D053222:Fas Ligand Protein; D015870:Gene Expression; D015316:Genetic Therapy / Q000379:methods; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D005910:Glioma / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics*; D051379:Mice; D009374:Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000628:therapy; D051381:Rats; D011916:Rats, Inbred F344; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: C505661:FASLG protein, human; D053222:Fas Ligand Protein; C505658:Fasl protein, mouse; C505662:Faslg protein, rat; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins