Lentiviral vector-mediated transfection of p53, p16 and PTEN genes against human renal cell carcinoma cell lines

Abstract Purpose Viral vector-mediated gene therapies for cancers have been eagerly studied in recent years. However, lentiviral vectors are not widely used despite their practical characteristics such as low cytotoxicity and prolonged expression of the transgenes. Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is highly refractory to known cancer treatment drugs, and surgical resection is used as the most common treatment of RCC. Therefore, we thought that lentiviral vector-mediated gene therapy would become a promising strategy of the treatment of RCC. In this study, we examine the lentiviral vector-mediated transfection of tumor suppressor genes against RCC cell lines. Methods Lentiviral vectors that contained the tumor suppressor genes, p53, p16, and PTEN, were transfected into human RCC cell lines, RCC4/VHL, 786-O and ACHN. Results Significant growth inhibition was observed in RCC cells on transfection with the tumor suppression genes. Especially, transfection of p16 showed remarkable effect on all experimental cell lines. Conclusions The results of this study demonstrate that lentivirus-mediated transfection of tumor suppressor genes exerts promising anti-tumor effects on RCC cell lines.