Gene transfer into solid tumours - is a special application device beneficial?

The replacement of inactivated tumour suppressor genes is a promising appro ach in cancer therapy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of technical determinants on the efficiency of adenoviral-mediated gene tra nsfer into solid tumours. Therefore, we compared the efficacy of two differ ent injection needle types, a conventional needle and a modified needle cha racterised by perforations at the side of the shaft in vivo. The total amou nt of adenoviral vector DNA and the activity of the transferred reporter ge ne were quantitatively analysed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) specific for the E4 region of the Ad vector genome and the beta -galactosidase assa y, respectively. The levels of adenoviral DNA, as well as the total beta -g alactosidase activity, varied widely, but were not significantly different for the two groups. These results suggest, that the efficiency of intratumo ral gene transfer cannot be improved by the design of the application devic e. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.