E. Kievit et al., Yeast cytosine deaminase improves radiosensitization and bystander effect by 5-fluorocytosine of human colorectal cancer xenografts, CANCER RES, 60(23), 2000, pp. 6649-6655
The efficacy of cancer gene therapy using bacterial cytosine deaminase (bCD
)/5-fluorocytosine (5-FC) enzyme/prodrug strategy is limited by the ineffic
iency of cytosine deaminase (CD)-catalyzed conversion of 5-FC into 5-fluoro
uracil (5-FU). We have shown previously that yeast CD (yCD) its more effici
ent at the conversion of 5-FC than bCD, In the current study, we hypothesiz
ed that the increased production of 5-FU by yCD would enhance the efficacy
of the CD/5-FC treatment strategy by increasing the bystander effect as wel
l as the efficacy of radiotherapy because of the radiosensitizing capacity
of 5-FU. To test this hypothesis, we generated stable HT29 human colon canc
er cell lines expressing either bCD (HT29/bCD) or yCD (HT29/yCD), The amoun
t of 5-FU produced in HT29/yCD tumors after a single injection of 5-FC (100
0 mg/kg, i.p.) was 15-fold higher than that produced in HT29/bCD tumors. In
tumor-bearing nude mice, the average minimum relative tumor size (compared
with pretreat ment values) of HT29/bCD tumors treated with 5-FC and radiat
ion (500 mg/kg i.p. and 3 Gy, 5 days a week for 2 weeks) was 0.55 +/- 0.1,
compared with 0.01 +/- 0.01 in HT29/yCD tumors (P = 0.002). Moreover, an in
creased cytotoxic and radiosensitizing effect of 5-FC on bystander cells wa
s observed in vitro and in vivo when yCD was expressed in HT29 cells instea
d of bCD, In mice bearing HT29 tumors containing 10% HT29/yCD cells, the co
mbined treatment resulted in a minimum tumor size of 0.20 +/- 0.07 compared
with 0.60 +/- 0.1 in 10% HT29/bCD cells (P < 0.001). These results demonst
rate that the use of yCD in the CD/5-FC strategy has a high potential to im
prove the therapeutic outcome of combined gene therapy and radiotherapy in
cancer patients.