Cancer Science & Therapy

Gamma-delta T Cells may Function as Carrier Vehicles in Adenovirus Vector-based Gene Therapy

Abstract

Michio Naoe, Yoshio Ogawa, Yuki Hasebe, Kozo Fuji, Sanju Iwamoto, Hiroyuki Mizuguchi, Takashi Aoi and Shuji Terao

Developing new treatments that reduce prostate cancer progression is important. Therapeutic efficacy of conventional gene therapy for metastatic prostate cancer is still low. Lower induction rate of naked genes into target cell is due to reduced expression of adenovirus receptor on cancer cell and also due to high seroprevalence of anti-Ad antibodies in adults. Therefore, efficient Ad carrier systems that circumvent these problems should be developed. Gamma-delta T cells have demonstrated high affinity to cancer cells. CD46, which leads to broad tropism in Ad35 vectors, is expressed in hematopoietic cells, including γδ T cells. In this study, we demonstrate the potential of γδ T cells as “vehicles” for transporting Ad5/F35 vectors and genes into cancer cells.