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

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Molecular Biology
• Bacteriology

Background:

• Tumor cell resistance to chemotherapy is a major challenge in cancer treatment.
• Overexpression of anti-apoptotic proteins like Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL contributes to this resistance.
• Blocking these proteins can sensitize cancer cells to chemotherapy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the potential of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium as a vector for delivering anti-cancer therapeutic genes.
• To evaluate the efficacy of a recombinant protein (BaxGFP) in inducing apoptosis in prostate cancer cells.
• To assess the sensitization of tumor cells to chemotherapy via bactofection.

Main Methods:

• Prostate cancer cells (PC3) were transfected with a plasmid encoding BaxGFP, an antagonist peptide from the BH3 region of Bax fused to GFP.
• Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (strain SL3261) was used as a live-attenuated bacterial vector for selective plasmid transport.
• Bactofection was employed to deliver the BaxGFP plasmid into tumor cells, followed by assessment of chemosensitization.

Main Results:

• The recombinant BaxGFP protein successfully induced apoptosis in prostate cancer cells.
• Salmonella-mediated delivery (bactofection) sensitized PC3 cells to cisplatin chemotherapy.
• The study demonstrated the feasibility of using Salmonella as a vector for gene delivery in cancer therapy.

Conclusions:

• Salmonella enterica can serve as an effective carrier vector for nucleotide sequences encoding therapeutic molecules.
• This approach holds promise for enhancing antitumor therapy by overcoming chemotherapy resistance.
• Bactofection represents a viable strategy for targeted gene delivery and cancer treatment sensitization.