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From Immunotoxins to Suicide Toxin Delivery Approaches: Is There a Clinical Opportunity?

Matteo Ardini1, Riccardo Vago2, Maria Serena Fabbrini3

  • 1Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy.

Toxins
|September 22, 2022
PubMed

Insights

Suicide gene therapy uses toxin genes to induce cancer cell death by damaging protein synthesis. This novel approach shows promise for effective cancer treatment strategies.

Area of Science:

  • Oncology
  • Molecular Biology
  • Biotechnology

Background:

  • Suicide gene therapy is an emerging cancer treatment strategy.
  • It involves delivering genes encoding cytotoxic proteins or enzymes into tumor cells.
  • Toxin genes are particularly effective due to their ability to disrupt essential cellular processes like protein synthesis.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To provide an overview of suicide gene therapy for cancer treatment.
  • To describe bacterial and plant enzymes investigated for this purpose.
  • To highlight their delivery and controlled expression in tumor models.

Main Methods:

  • Review of existing literature on suicide gene therapy.
  • Focus on toxin gene delivery systems (vesicles, nanoparticles, etc.).
  • Analysis of enzyme mechanisms targeting protein synthesis machinery.

Main Results:

  • Toxin genes can effectively induce cancer cell death.
  • Delivery systems are crucial for targeted gene expression.
  • Bacterial and plant enzymes show potential in preclinical tumor models.

Conclusions:

  • Suicide gene therapy, particularly using toxin genes, is a promising strategy for cancer treatment.
  • Further research into delivery systems and enzyme efficacy is warranted.
  • Controlled expression of these genes in tumor models is key to therapeutic success.
Keywords:
cancerextracellular vesiclesmodified RNAsnanoparticles (NPs)plant ribosome inactivating protein (RIP)suicide gene therapy (SGT)toxins

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