Oncolytic Newcastle disease virus reduces growth of cervical cancer cell by inducing apoptosis

Although Oncolytic viruses have been regarded as a promising tool for targeted therapy of cancer, accomplishing high efficacy and specificity with this strategy is challenging. Oncolytic virotherapy is one of the novel therapeutic methods recently used for the therapy of human malignancies. Cervical cancer is on the major public health problem and the second most common cause of cancer death among females in less developed countries. The aim of this study was mainly to determine the apoptosis effect of oncolytic Newcastle disease virus (NDV) in TC-1 cell line. In the current study, the oncolytic NDV, vaccine strain LaSota, was used to infect murine TC-1 cells of human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated carcinoma which expressing human papillomavirus 16 (HPV-16) E6/E7 antigens in vitro. The effectiveness of NDV for cervical cancer cell line was investigated by evaluating the antitumor activity of oncolytic NDV and the involved mechanisms. Antitumor activities of oncolytic NDV were assessed by cell proliferation (MTT) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release analysis. In addition, molecular changes of early stage of apoptosis and the role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) were analyzed by flow cytometry and Western Blot in NDV-treated TC-1 cells. The results showed that NDV treatment significantly decreased the viability of a TC-1 cell line and suppressed the growth by inducing apoptotic cell death. In addition, we demonstrated that NDV-induced apoptosis of TC-1 cells is mediated by ROS production. In summary, our findings suggest that oncolytic NDV is a possible therapeutic candidate as a selective antitumor agent for the treatment of cervical cancer.