Gene Therapy for Osteolytic Breast Cancer Bone Metastasis

Abstract

Bone is the frequent metastatic site for human breast cancer resulting in significant morbidity and mortality in patients with advanced disease. Osteoprotegerin (OPG) is a decoy receptor that competes with RANK for RANKL, thus, modulating the effects of RANKL. However, during the metastatic events involving cancer and stromal cell interaction, endogenous OPG levels are markedly reduced. Thus, OPG remains an effective molecule for future therapies for bone metastasis. We sought to achieve sustained effects of OPG combining cell therapy and gene therapy approaches. The aims were to determine therapeutic effects of stable OPG expression by rAAV gene therapy in a murine model of breast cancer bone metastasis, and to determine the synergistic effects of OPG gene therapy with bisphosphonate therapy in a murine model of breast cancer bone metastasis. So far, we produced high-titer recombinant AAV vectors encoding osteoprotegerin, and tested the feasibility of MSC therapy for reducing osteolysis in bone initiated by cancer growth. Also we established a method for bone homing of ex vivo cultured MSC by transient expression of 4 1 integrin. Continuation of the ongoing studies in to next year will provide valuable information on therapeutic effects of this therapy for breast cancer bone metastasis.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 27, 2006
Accession Number
ADA457786

Entities

People

  • Selvarangan Ponnazhagan

Organizations

  • University of Alabama

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Biomedical Research
  • Bone Diseases
  • Breast Cancer
  • Cancer
  • Cells
  • Chromosomes
  • Coding
  • Diseases And Disorders
  • Gene Therapy
  • Integrins
  • Macrophages
  • Medical Personnel
  • Molecules
  • Neoplasms
  • Stem Cells
  • Stromal Cells
  • Therapy

Fields of Study

  • Biology
  • Medicine

Readers

  • Oncology (Cancer Research).

Technology Areas

  • Biotechnology
  • Biotechnology - Cancer Biotech