Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:2.7.1.21 (thymidine kinase)
 7,561 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) exhibits synergistic antitumor activity when combined with tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) in vitro and in vivo and increases the cytotoxicity of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in vitro. Using a colon cancer cell line transplanted into nude mice, we examined the effects of pretreatment for 3 days with IFN-alpha (10(6) IU) and/or TNF-alpha (2.9 x 10(3) JRU) on 5-FU metabolism. 5-FU 30 mg/kg was administered after the pretreatment. IFN-alpha increased the tumor level of 5-fluorodeoxuridine monophosphate (FdUMP), and decreased the free level of thymidylate synthetase. Pretreatment with TNT-alpha alone decreased HUMP whereas TNF-alpha plus IFN-alpha abolished the enhancement of FdUMP production by IFN-alpha. TNF-alpha also suppressed thymidine kinase activity. Neither IFN-alpha nor TNF-alpha altered the incorporation of 5-FU into RNA.
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PMID:Suppressive effect of TNF-alpha on increased production of FdUMP by IFN-alpha. 868 Jul 97

Past studies have documented the promise of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) thymidine kinase (TK) suicide gene therapy as a potential antitumor treatment. HSV-TK converts the pro-drug ganciclovir (GCV) into a toxic nucleotide analogue, the incorporation of which into cellular DNA blocks cell proliferation. In this report, we have examined the hypothesis that the effectiveness of HSV-TK suicide gene therapy can be enhanced by coexpression of the antitumor cytokine human tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) from the same replication-defective HSV-1 vector. In vitro testing demonstrated that TNF-alpha expression from this vector potentiated the killing of both TNF-alpha-sensitive L929 tumor cells and TNF-alpha-resistant U-87 MG cells in the presence of GCV. Furthermore, treatment of established intradermal L929 tumors in vivo with the TNF-alpha/TK vector and GCV resulted in prolonged animal survival compared with treatment with parental HSV-TK vector in the presence or absence of GCV. Treatment of intracerebral U-87 MG tumors showed a clear benefit of TK therapy, but a significant further increase in survival using the TNF-alpha vector could not be demonstrated. We found that potentiation of cell killing in vitro required intracellular TNF-alpha because purified protein added to the culture medium of cells infected with HSV-TK vector failed to have the same effect. Accordingly, potentiation in vivo should depend on efficient infection, but immunohistochemical analysis indicated that virus administration by U-87 MG intratumoral injection was inadequate, resulting in an estimated <1% infection of all tumor cells. Moreover, the majority of infected tumor cells were localized at the tumor margin. Together, these results suggest that TNF-enhanced tk gene therapy should provide a useful treatment for TNF-alpha-sensitive tumors and perhaps also for TNT-alpha-resistant tumors if vector delivery can be improved to increase the percentage of transduced tumor cells.
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PMID:Enhanced tumor cell killing in the presence of ganciclovir by herpes simplex virus type 1 vector-directed coexpression of human tumor necrosis factor-alpha and herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase. 986 31