Adenovirus-mediated anti-AEG-1 ScFv expression driven by stathmin promoter inhibits tumor growth in cervical cancer

BACKGROUND: Astrocyte-elevated gene-1 (AEG-1) is over-expressed in many cancer cells and has multiple key functions in tumor initiation and progression. Currently, targeted-AEG-1 siRNA is one of the most common techniques to down-regulate AEG-1 expression, but the lack of tumor specificity and available delivery system make it difficult to enter clinical trials. METHODS: In this study, we creatively developed an adenovirus-mediated anti-AEG-1 single-chain antibody fragment (ScFv) expression system driven by a tumor specific promoter, and experimented with it in human cervical carcinoma cells to investigate the effect on tumor’s proliferation and apoptosis. RESULTS: The results showed that of HeLa and SiHa cells treated with this recombinant anti-AEG-1 ScFv adenovirus not only inhibited cell growth, but induced apoptosis both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, we also observed that the expressions of several apoptosis-related genes like Akt 1 and c-Myc decreased, while NF-κB (p65) and cleaved caspase 3 increased on protein levels in vivo. CONCLUSION: We concluded that stathmin promoter-driving anti-AEG-1 ScFv adenoviral system may be a breakthrough for its dual-specificity, and serve as an adjuvant tumor specific therapy method in the treatment for human cervical cancers.