Bone Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Bone Cancer, including details on symptoms, types, treatment.

Adenoviral-mediated gene transfer of ectodysplasin-A2 results in induction of apoptosis and cell-cycle arrest in osteosarcoma cell lines.

Chang B, Punj V, Shindo M, Chaudhary PM

1Hamon Center for Therapeutic Oncology Research, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.

The extremely poor prognosis of patients with metastatic osteosarcoma indicates the need for novel therapeutic approaches. Ectodysplasin-A2 (EDA-A2) is a recently isolated member of the tumor necrosis factor superfamily that binds to X-linked ectodermal dysplasia receptor (XEDAR). In this report, we have analyzed the biological activity of EDA-A2 against osteosarcoma-derived cell lines. We report that XEDAR is expressed in cell lines derived from osteosarcoma and adenoviral-mediated expression of EDA-A2 in these cells results in the induction of apoptosis via caspase activation and cell-cycle arrest in the G(0)/G(1) phase. Treatment with EDA-A2 also upregulates the expression of alkaline phosphatase, a marker of osteogenic differentiation, in a caspase-dependent fashion. Collectively, our results suggest that EDA-A2 may be a promising agent for the gene therapy of osteosarcoma.

Published 11 October 2007 in Cancer Gene Ther, 14(11): 927-33.
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