title: Inhibiting primary effusion lymphoma by lentiviral vectors encoding short hairpin RNA.
abstract: We use lentiviral-delivered RNA interference (RNAi) to inhibit the growth of a model of primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) in vitro and in vivo. RNAi is a phenomenon allowing the sequence-specific targeting and silencing of exogenous and endogenous gene expression and is being applied to inhibit viral replication both in vitro and in vivo. We show that silencing of genes believed to be essential for the Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) latent life cycle (the oncogenic cluster) has a varied effect in PEL cell lines cultured in vitro, however, concomitant silencing of the viral cyclin (vcyclin) and viral FLICE (Fas-associating protein with death domain-like interleukin-1beta-converting enzyme) inhibitory protein (vFLIP) caused efficient apoptosis in all PEL lines tested. We demonstrate that in a murine model of PEL, lentiviral-mediated RNA interference both inhibits development of ascites and can act as a treatment for established ascites. We also show that the administered lentiviral vectors are essentially limited to the peritoneal cavity, which has advantages for safety and dosage in a therapeutic setting. This shows the use of lentiviral-mediated RNA interference in vivo as a potential therapeutic against a virally driven human cancer.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Research United Kingdom Viral Oncology Group, Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, UCL, Gower Street, London, United Kingdom WC1E 6BT.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Godfrey
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.forename: Antigoni
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Papanastasiou
authors.forename: Yasu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takeuchi
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Boshoff
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001201:Ascites / Q000235:genetics; D053181:Caspase 8; D020169:Caspases / Q000235:genetics; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D016213:Cyclins / Q000235:genetics; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D020868:Gene Silencing; D015316:Genetic Therapy; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D006566:Herpesviridae Infections / Q000235:genetics / Q000628:therapy; D019288:Herpesvirus 8, Human / Q000235:genetics; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D016086:Lentivirus; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000235:genetics / Q000628:therapy*; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering / Q000235:genetics*; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D016213:Cyclins; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering; D014764:Viral Proteins; C481275:viral FLIP protein, Human herpesvirus 8; C064658:RAG-1 protein; C505530:CASP8 protein, human; C505526:Casp8 protein, mouse; D053181:Caspase 8; D020169:Caspases