Suppression of colorectal cancer growth using an adenovirus vector expressing an antisense K-ras RNA

In human colorectal cancer, K-ras point mutations occur in approximately 40-50% of the cases, a frequency second only to pancreatic cancer (80-90%). Unlike pancreatic and lung cancers, however, the tumor-suppressive effect of antisense K-ras RNA expression has not been examined for colorectal cancers. A recombinant adenovirus vector expressing an antisense or sense K-ras gene fragment (AxCA-AS-K-ras or AxCA-S-K-ras) was first transduced into seven human colorectal cancer cell lines. Stable expression of antisense or sense K-ras RNA was detected by RNA blot analysis. Western blot analysis confirmed a reduction of up to 25% of K-ras-specific p21 protein in the antisense K-ras-transduced HCT-15 cells. In contrast to our previous findings on pancreatic cancer, the status of K-ras point mutations was not correlated with the growth-suppressive effect of the antisense K-ras vector: both the K-ras-mutation-positive and -negative colorectal cancer cell lines were suppressed for their growth in vitro. There was no growth-inhibitory effect on normal cells such as hepatocytes. Next, to test the efficacy in vivo, HCT-15 cells were inoculated subcutaneously into the left flank of SCID mice, and AxCA-AS-K-ras was injected intratumorally three times after the tumor mass was established. The infection of AxCA-AS-K-ras, but not the control AxCA-S-K-ras, significantly suppressed the growth of the HCT-15 subcutaneous tumor. This study shows that the adenovirus-mediated in vivo gene transfer of the antisense K-ras construct may be a useful therapeutic strategy for colorectal cancer.