Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Original Article
  • Published:

Conditional control of suicide gene expression in tumor cells with theophylline-responsive ribozyme

Gene Therapy volume 24, pages 84–91 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Numerous synthetic RNA-based controls for integrating sensing switches with function devices have been demonstrated in a variety of organisms for gene regulation. Although potential advantages of RNA-based genetic control strategies have been shown in clinical applications, successfully extending these engineered systems into medical applications has seldom been reported. Here, a synthetic RNA-based ribozyme system and its application in advancing rationally designed cellular therapy were described. The theophylline-responsive, ribozyme-based device provided a powerful platform for suicide gene expression regulation in tumor cells. Moreover, we demonstrate the ability of our synthetic controller to modulate effectively the viability of the cells in response to drug input. Our RNA-based regulatory system could dose-dependently fine-tune transgene expression in mammalian cells and address urgent limitations in existing genetic control strategies for gene- and cell-based therapies in the future.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Moolten FL . Tumor chemosensitivity conferred by inserted herpes thymidine kinase genes: paradigm for a prospective cancer control strategy. Cancer Res 1986; 46: 5276–5281.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Fillat C, Carrio M, Cascante A, Sangro B . Suicide gene therapy mediated by the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase gene/ganciclovi system: fifteen years of application. Curr Gene Ther 2003; 3: 13–26.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Shen Y, Nemunaitis J . Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) for cancer treatment. Cancer Gene Ther 2006; 13: 975–992.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Ardiani A, Sanchez-Bonilla M, Black ME . Fusion enzymes containing HSV-1 thymidine kinase mutants and guanylate kinase enhance prodrug sensitivity in vitro and in vivo. Cancer Gene Ther 2010; 17: 86–96.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Chatelut E, Delord JP, Canal P . Toxicity patterns of cytotoxic drugs. Invest New Drug 2003; 21: 141–148.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Peterson DE, Cariello A . Mucosal damage: a major risk factor for severe complications after cytotoxic therapy. Semin Oncol 2004; 31: 35–44.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Bleakley M, Riddell SR . Molecules and mechanisms of the graft-versus-leukaemia effect. Nat Rev Cancer 2004; 4: 371–380.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Yee C, Thompson JA, Roche P, Byrd DR, Lee PP, Piepkorn M et al. Melanocyte destruction after antigen-specific immunotherapy of melanoma: direct evidence of T cell-mediated vitiligo. J Exp Med 2000; 192: 1637–1643.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Horowitz MM, Gale RP, Sondel PM, Goldman JM, Kersey J, Kolb HJ et al. Graft-versus-leukemia reactions after bone marrow transplantation. Blood 1990; 75: 555–562.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Goulmy E . Human minor histocompatibility antigens: new concepts for marrow transplantation and adoptive immunotherapy. Immunol Rev 1997; 157: 125–140.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Kolb HJ, Schmid C, Barrett AJ, Schendel DJ . Graft-versus-leukemia reactions in allogeneic chimeras. Blood 2004; 103: 767–776.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Dudley ME, Wunderlich JR, Robbins PF, Yang JC, Hwu P, Schwartzentruber DJ et al. Cancer regression and autoimmunity in patients after clonalrepopulation with antitumor lymphocytes. Science 2002; 298: 850–854.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Traversari C, Marktel S, Magnani Z, Mangia P, Russo V, Ciceri F et al. The potential immunogenicity of the TK suicide gene does not prevent full clinical benefit associated with the use of TK-transduced donor lymphocytes in HSCT for hematologic malignancies. Blood 2007; 109: 4708–4715.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Ciceri F, Bonini C, Stanghellini MT, Bondanza A, Traversari C, Salomoni M et al. Infusion of suicide-gene-engineered donor lymphocytes after family haploidentical haemopoietic stem-cell transplantation for leukaemia (the TK007 trial): a non-randomised phase I–II study. Lancet Oncol 2009; 10: 489–500.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Burt RK, Drobyski WR, Seregina T, Traynor A, Oyama Y, Keever-Taylor C et al. Herpes simplex thymidine kinase gene–transduced donor lymphocyte infusions. Exp Hematol 2003; 31: 903–910.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Berger C, Flowers ME, Warren EH, Riddell SR . Analysis of transgene-specific immune responses that limit thein vivopersistence of adoptively transferred HSV-TK-modified donor T cells after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation. Blood 2006; 107: 2294–2301.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Frank O, Rudolph C, Heberlein C, von Neuhoff N, Schrock E, Schambach A et al. Tumor cells escape suicide gene therapy by genetic and epigenetic instability. Blood 2004; 104: 3543–3549.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Greco R, Oliveira G, Stanghellini MT, Vago L, Bondanza A, Peccatori J et al. Improving the safety of cell therapy with the TK-suicide gene. Front Pharmacol 2015; 6: 1–13.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Na D, Yoo SM, Chung H, Park H, Park J H, Lee S Y et al. Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli using synthetic small regulatory RNAs. Nat Biotechnol 2013; 31: 170–174.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Ruder WC, Lu T, Collins JJ . Synthetic biology moving into the clinic. Science 2011; 333: 1248–1252.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Chen X J, Li T, Wang X, Du Z, Liu R, Yang Y . Synthetic dual-input mammalian genetic circuits enable tunable and stringent transcription control by chemical and light. Nucleic Acids Res 2016; 44: 2677–2690.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Nudler E, Mironov A S . The riboswitch control of bacterial metabolism. Trends Biochem Sci 2004; 29: 11–17.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Lin S, Gao W, Tian Z, Yang C, Lu L, Mergny JL et al. Luminescence switch-on detection of protein tyrosine kinase-7 using a G-quadruplex-selective probe. Chem Sci 2015; 6: 4284–4290.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Leung KH, Zhang HH, He B, Zhong JH, Lin S, Wang YT et al. Label-free luminescence switch-on detection of hepatitis C virus NS3 helicase activity using a G-quadruplex-selective probe. Chem Sci 2015; 6: 2166–2171.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Beilstein K, Wittmann A, Grez M, Suess B . Conditional control of mammalian gene expression by tetracycline-dependent hammerhead ribozymes. ACS Synth Biol 2014; 4: 526–534.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Win MN, Smolk CD . A modular and extensible RNA-based gene-regulatory platform for engineering cellular function. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2007; 104: 14283–14288.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Ketzer P, Haas SF, Engelhardt S, Hartig JS, Nettelbeck DM . Synthetic riboswitches for external regulation of genes transferred by replication-deficient and oncolytic adenoviruses. Nucleic Acids Res 2012; 40: e167.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Nomura Y, Zhou L, Miu A, Yokobayashi Y . Controlling mammalian gene expression by allosteric hepatitis delta virus ribozymes. ACS Synth Biol 2013; 2: 684–689.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Chen YY, Jensen MC, Smolk CD . Genetic control of mammalian T-cell proliferation with synthetic RNA regulatory systems. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2010; 107: 8531–8536.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Marin V, Cribioli E, Philip B, Tettamanti S, Pizzitola I, Biondi A et al. Comparison of different suicide-gene strategies for the safety improvement of genetically manipulated T cells. Hum Gene Ther Methods 2012; 23: 376–386.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Wieland M, Auslander D, Fussenegger M . Engineering of ribozyme-based riboswitches for mammalian cells. Methods 2012; 56: 351–357.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Auslander S, Ketzer P, Hartig JS . A ligand-dependent hammerhead ribozyme switch for controlling mammalian gene expression. Mol Biosyst 2010; 6: 807–814.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Jenison RD, Gill SC, Pardi A, Polisky B . High-resolution molecular discrimination by RNA. Science 1994; 263: 1425–1429.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Wittmann A, Suess B . Selection of tetracycline inducible self-cleaving ribozymes as synthetic devices for gene regulation in yeast. Mol Biosyst 2011; 7: 2419–2427.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Geering B, Fussenegger M . Synthetic immunology: modulating the human immune system. Trends Biotechnol 2015; 33: 65–79.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31300096, 21275156), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20130351, BK20130357) and the CAS/SAFEA International Innovation Teams program.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Ion Beam Bioengineering, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, China

    Y Zhang & Z Wu

  2. University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    Y Zhang

  3. Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, China

    Y Zhang, J Wang, H Cheng, Y Sun, M Liu & R Pei

Authors
  1. Y Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. J Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. H Cheng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Y Sun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. M Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Z Wu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. R Pei
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to R Pei.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zhang, Y., Wang, J., Cheng, H. et al. Conditional control of suicide gene expression in tumor cells with theophylline-responsive ribozyme. Gene Ther 24, 84–91 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/gt.2016.78

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/gt.2016.78

Search

Advanced search

Quick links