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Virus vector-mediated genetic modification of brain tumor stromal cells after intravenous delivery

  • Laboratory Investigation
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Abstract

The malignant primary brain tumor, glioblastoma (GBM) is generally incurable. New approaches are desperately needed. Adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector-mediated delivery of anti-tumor transgenes is a promising strategy, however direct injection leads to focal transgene spread in tumor and rapid tumor division dilutes out the extra-chromosomal AAV genome, limiting duration of transgene expression. Intravenous (IV) injection gives widespread distribution of AAV in normal brain, however poor transgene expression in tumor, and high expression in non-target cells which may lead to ineffective therapy and high toxicity, respectively. Delivery of transgenes encoding secreted, anti-tumor proteins to tumor stromal cells may provide a more stable and localized reservoir of therapy as they are more differentiated than fast-dividing tumor cells. Reactive astrocytes and tumor-associated macrophage/microglia (TAMs) are stromal cells that comprise a large portion of the tumor mass and are associated with tumorigenesis. In mouse models of GBM, we used IV delivery of exosome-associated AAV vectors driving green fluorescent protein expression by specific promoters (NF-κB-responsive promoter and a truncated glial fibrillary acidic protein promoter), to obtain targeted transduction of TAMs and reactive astrocytes, respectively, while avoiding transgene expression in the periphery. We used our approach to express the potent, yet toxic anti-tumor cytokine, interferon beta, in tumor stroma of a mouse model of GBM, and achieved a modest, yet significant enhancement in survival compared to controls. Noninvasive genetic modification of tumor microenvironment represents a promising approach for therapy against cancers. Additionally, the vectors described here may facilitate basic research in the study of tumor stromal cells in situ.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the MGH Quantitative Real-Time PCR Core Facility for use of the quantitative PCR equipment for AAV quantitation and RT-qPCR analysis of transgene expression.

Funding

This work was supported by an American Brain Tumor Association Discovery Grant (CAM), a Cure Alzheimer’s Fund award (CAM) and the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute K22CA197053 (C.E.B.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, The Massachusetts General Hospital, and NeuroDiscovery Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Adrienn Volak, Stanley G. LeRoy, Jeya Shree Natasan, David J. Park, Pike See Cheah, Andreas Maus, Zachary Fitzpatrick, Eloise Hudry, Kelsey Pinkham, Sheetal Gandhi, Bradley T. Hyman, Dakai Mu, Christian E. Badr & Casey A. Maguire

  2. Alzheimer Research Unit, The Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Charlestown, MA, USA

    Eloise Hudry, Sheetal Gandhi & Bradley T. Hyman

  3. University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA

    Dwijit GuhaSarkar & Miguel Sena-Esteves

  4. Molecular Pathology Division, The Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Anat O. Stemmer-Rachamimov

  5. Department of Human Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia

    Pike See Cheah

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  1. Adrienn Volak
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  2. Stanley G. LeRoy
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  3. Jeya Shree Natasan
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  4. David J. Park
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  6. Andreas Maus
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  7. Zachary Fitzpatrick
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  8. Eloise Hudry
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  11. Bradley T. Hyman
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  12. Dakai Mu
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  13. Dwijit GuhaSarkar
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  17. Casey A. Maguire
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Contributions

CAM and CEB conceived of the study. AV, CAM, SGL, JSN, DJP, PSC, AM, ZF, EH, KP, SG, DM, DG, CEB performed experiments. CAM, CEB, SGL, AV, MSE, DG, ASR, BTH analyzed the results. CAM and CEB wrote the manuscript with input from all authors. All the authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Christian E. Badr or Casey A. Maguire.

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Conflict of interest

CAM has submitted patent applications regarding the exo-AAV platform. CAM holds equity in and is a founder and scientific advisor of Chameleon Biosciences, Inc, a gene therapy company.

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Volak, A., LeRoy, S.G., Natasan, J.S. et al. Virus vector-mediated genetic modification of brain tumor stromal cells after intravenous delivery. J Neurooncol 139, 293–305 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-018-2889-2

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