Inhibition of Dual Specific Oncolytic Adenovirus on Esophageal Cancer via Activation of Caspases by a Mitochondrial-dependent Pathway

We investigated the anti-tumor effects of dual cancer specific-oncolytic adenovirus Ad-VP on esophageal cancer(EC).The anti-tumor activity of Ad-VP was compared with that of the control recombinant adenoviruses(Ad-GP,Ad-Apoptin,Ad-EGFP) in human esophageal cancer cell EC-109 and human normal liver cell L02 in vitro.In 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide(MTT) assays,the growth of EC-109 cells was slightly inhibited by Ad-GP,Ad-Apoptin and Ad-EGFP.However,Ad-VP induced a significant cytotoxic effect.Infection of EC-109 cells with Ad-VP resulted in a significant induction of apoptosis of them in vitro,detected by 4’,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole(DAPI) or acridine orange and ethidium bromide staining.The results of Western blot and flow cytometric assay indicate the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential(ΔΨ m),the release of cytochrome c and the activation of caspase-3,6 and 7 in Ad-VP infected EC-109 cells.In contrast,all these assays show almost no effects of the recombinant adenoviruses on L02 cells.These results demonstrate that the treatment of tumors with Ad-VP selectively inhibits tumor growth and induces apoptosis of esophageal cancer cells.Ad-VP may provide a novel and powerful strategy for cancer gene therapy.