Synergistic antitumor effect of the combination of a dual cancer-specific oncolytic adenovirus and cisplatin on lung cancer cells

The effect of the combination of a recombinant adenovirus (ATV) expressing a specific apoptin protein and cisplatin on human lung cancer cells (A549 cells) was determined. The inhibitory effects of ATV and cisplatin, ATV alone, or cisplatin alone on the migration and invasion of A549 cells were evaluated in vitro using cell proliferation, wound healing, Transwell migration and Matrigel invasion assays. The tumor inhibition effect on A549 cells in vivo was assessed by observing the tumor growth and survival rate of nude mice with subcutaneous tumor xenografts grown from implanted A549 cells after treatment with ATV, cisplatin, or ATV combined with cisplatin. The proliferation (P<0.01), migration (P<0.01), and invasion (P<0.01) on A549 cells was suppressed significantly by ATV, cisplatin, and ATV and cisplatin, in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The inhibition of tumor growth in transplanted nude mice in the ATV combined with cisplatin group was significantly higher than that displayed in the other groups, and the survival rate of the combined treatment group was significantly higher than that of the group treated with cisplatin alone. The results indicated that the combined application of ATV and cisplatin could reduce toxicity and showed a synergistic effect in reducing tumor growth and increasing survival. Thus, there is a potential research value in treating tumors using the combination of ATV and cisplatin, which provides a foundation for future preclinical studies on this antitumor treatment.