Suicide Gene Delivery System Mediated by Ultrasound-Targeted Microbubble Destruction: A Promising Strategy for Cancer Therapy
- 1 December 2022
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Mary Ann Liebert Inc in Human Gene Therapy
- Vol. 33 (23-24), 1246-1259
- https://doi.org/10.1089/hum.2022.152
Abstract
The treatment of malignant tumors has always been one of the challenges that have plagued researchers and clinicians. The ideal status in cancer treatment is to eliminate tumor cells while avoiding damage to normal tissues. Different approaches have been investigated to achieve such a goal, and suicide gene therapy has emerged as a novel mode of cancer treatment. This approach involves the delivery of genes encoding enzymes that activate non-toxic prodrugs into cytotoxic metabolites that cause the death of transfected cancer cells. Despite promising results obtained both in vitro and in vivo, this innovative approach has long been stalled in the clinic due to the lack of a suitable delivery system to introduce the suicide gene into cancer cells. Ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD) represents a valuable non-viral vector system for site-specific and noninvasive gene therapy. Ultrasound promotes intracellular uptake of therapeutic agents by increasing vascular and cell membrane permeability, especially in the presence of microbubbles. In this scenario, the true potential of suicide genes can be translated into clinically valuable treatments for patients. This review provides background information on suicide gene therapy and UTMD technology, summarizes the current state of knowledge about UTMD-mediated suicide gene delivery in cancer treatment, and presents an outlook on its future development.This publication has 121 references indexed in Scilit:
- Noninvasive and Targeted Gene Delivery into the Brain Using Microbubble-Facilitated Focused UltrasoundPLOS ONE, 2013
- Ultrasound microbubble contrast agent-mediated suicide gene transfection in the treatment of hepatic cancerOncology Letters, 2012
- Selective killing of lung cancer cells using carcinoembryonic antigen promoter and double suicide genes, thymidine kinase and cytosine deaminase (pCEA-TK/CD)Cancer Letters, 2012
- Unrepairable DNA double-strand breaks initiate cytotoxicity with HSV-TK/ganciclovirCancer Gene Therapy, 2011
- Co-expression of herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase and Escherichia coli nitroreductase by an hTERT-driven adenovirus vector in breast cancer cells results in additive anti-tumor effectsOncology Reports, 2011
- Ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction mediated herpes simplex virus-thymidine kinase gene treats hepatoma in miceJournal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research, 2010
- Targeted Cytosine Deaminase-Uracil Phosphoribosyl Transferase Suicide Gene Therapy Induces Small Cell Lung Cancer–Specific Cytotoxicity and Tumor Growth DelayClinical Cancer Research, 2010
- Microbubble compositions, properties and biomedical applicationsBubble Science, Engineering & Technology, 2009
- Nonviral Gene Delivery: Principle, Limitations, and Recent ProgressThe AAPS Journal, 2009
- Expression of the bifunctional suicide gene CDUPRT increases radiosensitization and bystander effect of 5-FC in prostate cancer cellsRadiotherapy and Oncology, 2009