Gene delivery in malignant B cells using the combination of lentiviruses conjugated to anti‐transferrin receptor antibodies and an immunoglobulin promoter

Abstract

We previously developed an antibody-avidin fusion protein (ch128.1Av) specific for the human transferrin receptor 1 (TfR1; CD71) to be used as a delivery vector for cancer therapy and showed that ch128.1Av delivers the biotinylated plant toxin saporin-6 into malignant B cells. However, as a result of widespread expression of TfR1, delivery of the toxin to normal cells is a concern. Therefore, we explored the potential of a dual targeted lentiviral-mediated gene therapy strategy to restrict gene expression to malignant B cells. Targeting occurs through the use of ch128.1Av or its parental antibody without avidin (ch128.1) and through transcriptional regulation using an immunoglobulin promoter. Flow cytometry was used to detect the expression of enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) in a panel of cell lines. Cell viability after specific delivery of the therapeutic gene FCU1, a chimeric enzyme consisting of cytosine deaminase genetically fused to uracil phosphoribosyltransferse that converts the 5-fluorocytosine (5-FC) prodrug into toxic metabolites, was monitored using the MTS or WST-1 viability assay. We found that EGFP was specifically expressed in a panel of human malignant B-cell lines, but not in human malignant T-cell lines. EGFP expression was observed in all cell lines when a ubiquitous promoter was used. Furthermore, we show the decrease of cell viability in malignant plasma cells in the presence of 5-FC and the FCU1 gene. The present study demonstrates that gene expression can be restricted to malignant B cells and suggests that this dual targeted gene therapy strategy may help to circumvent the potential side effects of certain TfR1-targeted protein delivery approaches.