Bactofection of sequences encoding a Bax protein peptide chemosensitizes prostate cancer tumor cells

• Published in: Boletín Médico del Hospital Infantil de México Vol. 73; no. 6; pp. 388 - 396
• Main Authors: Marco Antonio Hernández-Luna, Ricardo Díaz de León-Ortega, Daniel Dimitri Hernández-Cueto, Ricardo Gaxiola-Centeno, Raúl Castro-Luna, Leonel Martínez-Cristóbal, Sara Huerta-Yépez, Rosendo Luria-Pérez
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Permanyer 01-11-2016
• Subjects: Bactofection; Bax peptides; Cancer therapy; Salmonella
• ISSN: 1665-1146
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bmhimx.2016.10.002

Background: Tumor cell resistance to chemotherapy agents is one of the main problems in the eradication of different neoplasias. One of the mechanisms of this process is the overexpression of anti-apoptotic proteins such as Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL; blocking the activity of these proteins may contribute to the sensitization of tumor cells and allow the adequate effects of chemotherapeutic drugs. Methods and results: This study adressed the transfection of prostate cancer cells (PC3) with a plasmid encoding a recombinant protein with an antagonist peptide from the BH3 region of the Bax protein fused to the GFP reporter protein (BaxGFP). This protein induced apoptosis of these tumor cells; further, selective transport of this plasmid to the tumor cell with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (strain SL3261), a live-attenuated bacterial vector, can induce sensitization of the tumor cell to the action of drugs such as cisplatin, through a process known as bactofection. Conclusions: These results suggest that Salmonella enterica can be used as a carrier vector of nucleotide sequences encoding heterologous molecules used in antitumor therapy.