Affiliations 

  • 1 Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
  • 3 Xiamen University Malaysia, Jalan Sunsuria, Bandar Sunsuria, 43900, Sepang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
  • 4 School of Foundation Studies, Perdana University, Block B and D1, MAEPS Building, MARDI Complex, Jalan MAEPS Perdana, 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
  • 5 Department of Biological Sciences, School of Science and Technology, Sunway University, 5, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Sunway, 47500, Subang Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
  • 6 Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. kyusoff@upm.edu.my
Sci Rep, 2019 Sep 30;9(1):13999.
PMID: 31570732 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-50222-z

Abstract

The Newcastle disease virus (NDV) strain AF2240 is an avian avulavirus that has been demonstrated to possess oncolytic activity against cancer cells. However, to illicit a greater anti-cancer immune response, it is believed that the incorporation of immunostimulatory genes such as IL12 into a recombinant NDV backbone will enhance its oncolytic effect. In this study, a newly developed recombinant NDV that expresses IL12 (rAF-IL12) was tested for its safety, stability and cytotoxicity. The stability of rAF-IL12 was maintained when passaged in specific pathogen free (SPF) chicken eggs from passage 1 to passage 10; with an HA titer of 29. Based on the results obtained from the MTT cytotoxic assay, rAF-IL12 was determined to be safe as it only induced cytotoxic effects against normal chicken cell lines and human breast cancer cells while sparing normal cells. Significant tumor growth inhibition (52%) was observed in the rAF-IL12-treated mice. The in vivo safety profile of rAF-IL12 was confirmed through histological observation and viral load titer assay. The concentration and presence of the expressed IL12 was quantified and verified via ELISA assay. In summary, rAF-IL12 was proven to be safe, selectively replicating in chicken and cancer cells and was able to maintain its stability throughout several passages; thus enhancing its potential as an anti-breast cancer vaccine.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.