Oncolytic virotherapy promotes radiosensitivity in soft tissue sarcoma by suppressing anti-apoptotic MCL1 expression

PLoS One. 2021 Apr 22;16(4):e0250643. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250643. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Soft tissue sarcoma (STS) is a rare cancer that develops from soft tissues in any part of the body. Despite major advances in the treatment of STS, patients are often refractory to conventional radiotherapy, leading to poor prognosis. Enhancement of sensitivity to radiotherapy would therefore improve the clinical outcome of STS patients. We previously revealed that the tumor-specific, replication-competent oncolytic adenovirus OBP-301 kills human sarcoma cells. In this study, we investigated the radiosensitizing effect of OBP-301 in human STS cells. The in vitro antitumor effect of OBP-301 and ionizing radiation in monotherapy or combination therapy was assessed using highly radiosensitive (RD-ES and SK-ES-1) and moderately radiosensitive (HT1080 and NMS-2) STS cell lines. The expression of markers for apoptosis and DNA damage were evaluated in STS cells after treatment. The therapeutic potential of combination therapy was further analyzed using SK-ES-1 and HT1080 cells in subcutaneous xenograft tumor models. The combination of OBP-301 and ionizing radiation showed a synergistic antitumor effect in all human STS cell lines tested, including those that show different radiosensitivity. OBP-301 was found to enhance irradiation-induced apoptosis and DNA damage via suppression of anti-apoptotic myeloid cell leukemia 1 (MCL1), which was expressed at higher levels in moderately radiosensitive cell lines. The combination of OBP-301 and ionizing radiation showed a more profound antitumor effect compared to monotherapy in SK-ES-1 (highly radiosensitive) and HT1080 (moderately radiosensitive) subcutaneous xenograft tumors. OBP-301 is a promising antitumor reagent to improve the therapeutic potential of radiotherapy by increasing radiation-induced apoptosis in STS.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adenoviridae / genetics
  • Animals
  • Apoptosis / radiation effects
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cell Survival / radiation effects
  • Combined Modality Therapy
  • DNA Damage / radiation effects
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • Mice, Nude
  • Myeloid Cell Leukemia Sequence 1 Protein / genetics
  • Myeloid Cell Leukemia Sequence 1 Protein / metabolism*
  • Oncolytic Virotherapy
  • Radiation Tolerance*
  • Radiation, Ionizing
  • Sarcoma / metabolism
  • Sarcoma / pathology
  • Sarcoma / radiotherapy
  • Sarcoma / therapy*
  • Soft Tissue Neoplasms / metabolism
  • Soft Tissue Neoplasms / pathology
  • Soft Tissue Neoplasms / radiotherapy
  • Soft Tissue Neoplasms / therapy*
  • Transplantation, Heterologous

Substances

  • Myeloid Cell Leukemia Sequence 1 Protein

Grants and funding

This study was supported in part by grants from the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture, Japan (T. Fujiwara, Nos. 25293283 and 16H05416; T. Ozaki, No. 25293323; T. Kunisada, Nos. 25462333 and 16K10862; K. Sugiu, No. 15K10446; and H. Tazawa, No. 16K10596). Oncolys BioPharma, Inc. provided support in the form of salaries for Y. Urata, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.