Oncolytic replication-competent adenovirus suppresses tumor angiogenesis through preserved E1A region

An adenovirus (Adv) retaining normal E1A but lacking the 55 kDa E1B protein replicates preferentially in TP53-deficient cancer cells including pancreatic cancer cell lines, resulting in the oncolysis of the tumor. When tumor cells are exposed to hypoxia, hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) is stabilized and activated to promote the transcription of several genes such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), but in the presence of E1A hypoxia-induced VEGF m-RNA synthesis is inhibited by E1A binding to p300. In this study, we demonstrated that the cancer cells infected with a mutant Adv in which the p300 binding site in E1A was partially deleted induced a higher expression level of VEGF as compared to those of Adv with normal E1A. An immunoprecipitation study for E1A confirmed that mutant E1A had a reduced binding capacity for p300. Although the expressions of HIF-1alpha m-RNA were almost the same in both cancer cells infected with the mutant Adv and those with the wild Adv, the amount of HIF-1alpha protein in cancer cells infected with the wild E1A Adv was lower than in those infected with the mutant E1A type Adv. In vivo, in contrast to the angiogenesis treated with mutant E1A, wild-E1A inhibited tumor angiogenesis significantly. These results suggested that E1A suppressed the production of VEGF and inhibited tumor angiogenesis by binding with p300, resulting in the inhibition of the HIF-1alpha-mediated transcription of genes through binding to HRE. This study demonstrates, for the first time, the effect of an oncolytic replication-competent Adv in inhibiting tumor angiogenesis.