Bactofection of sequences encoding a Bax protein peptide chemosensitizes prostate cancer tumor cells

Abstract

Background

Tumor cell resistance to chemotherapy agents is one of the main problems in the eradication of different neoplasias. One of the mechanisms of this process is the overexpression of anti-apoptotic proteins such as Bcl-2 and Bcl-_XL; blocking the activity of these proteins may contribute to the sensitization of tumor cells and allow the adequate effects of chemotherapeutic drugs.

Methods and results

This study adressed the transfection of prostate cancer cells (PC3) with a plasmid encoding a recombinant protein with an antagonist peptide from the BH3 region of the Bax protein fused to the GFP reporter protein (BaxGFP).

This protein induced apoptosis of these tumor cells; further, selective transport of this plasmid to the tumor cell with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (strain SL3261), a live-attenuated bacterial vector, can induce sensitization of the tumor cell to the action of drugs such as cisplatin, through a process known as bactofection.

Conclusions

These results suggest that Salmonella enterica can be used as a carrier vector of nucleotide sequences encoding heterologous molecules used in antitumor therapy.