Direct transfer of IL-12 gene into growing Renca tumors

We investigated the feasibility of transferring naked plasmid DNA containin g a therapeutic gene (IL-12) into mice harboring growing Renca tumors. We found that naked DNA transferred into growing Renca and B16(F10) tumors gives higher expression level of reporter gene than complexes of DNA with D DAB/DOPE or DCChol/DOPE. Transfer of naked DNA carrying the IL-12 gene into growing Renca tumors causes a distinct therapeutic effect that depends on the time span between inoculation of mice with cancer cells and the beginni ng of the therapy. Therapy started on day 3 resulted in total cure (100%) o f mice.