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Inhibitory effects of interferon-gamma plasmid DNA on DMBA-TPA induced mouse skin carcinogenesis

Cancer Gene Therapy volume 18, pages 646–654 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) exhibits biological activities that are considered to have important roles in tumor suppression. Therefore, the IFN-γ gene is a potential candidate for in vivo cytokine gene therapy against skin cancer. The present study evaluated the efficacy of a hydrodynamics-based IFN-γ gene transfection for skin cancer treatment, in which the plasmid DNA encoding IFN-γ was administered into the tail vein of mice following 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene and 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate-induced skin carcinogenesis. Serum levels of IFN-γ were substantially elevated without liver toxicity. The mice injected with IFN-γ plasmid DNA displayed a marked reduction in papilloma numbers, suppressed proliferation of epidermal cells and induction of caspase-3-mediated apoptosis. These results suggest that the hydrodynamics-based transfection of IFN-γ plasmid DNA is a convenient and efficient means of skin cancer gene therapy.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MEST) Grant No-2009-0071504. The authors acknowledge a graduate fellowship provided by the Korean Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development through the Brain Korea 21 project.

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  1. Department of Veterinary Infectious Diseases, College of Veterinary Medicine, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Republic of Korea

    J-H Ko, B-G Jung & B-J Lee

  2. Department of Companion and Laboratory Animal Science, Kongju National University, Chungnam, Republic of Korea

    Y-S Park

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  1. J-H Ko
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Correspondence to B-J Lee.

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Ko, JH., Jung, BG., Park, YS. et al. Inhibitory effects of interferon-gamma plasmid DNA on DMBA-TPA induced mouse skin carcinogenesis. Cancer Gene Ther 18, 646–654 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/cgt.2011.36

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