Significant increase of adenovirus infectivity in glioma cell lines by extracellular domain of hCAR.

Recombinant adenoviruses are highly advantageous as vectors for transferring genes into mammalian cells, but the transfer is not efficient in all types of cells. We investigated the effects of four adenoviral receptors [integrinalphav, integrinbeta3, integrinbeta5, and human coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor (hCAR)] on adenovirus-mediated transfer of exogenous cDNA into each of 10 glioma cell lines. Transfection efficiency varied widely from one cell line to another (0-100%) when we measured it by infection with AdLacZ, a vector designed to express beta-galactosidase. Levels of integrinalphav and integrinbeta5 expression were similar among the 10 cell lines, but expression of hCAR and integrinbeta3 varied significantly. As these observations indicated a possible correlation between expression of hCAR and the efficiency of gene transfer, we induced the hCAR gene into three glioma cell lines (T98G, U118MG, and U138MG) that expressed hCAR at very low levels and had also revealed low efficiencies of adenoviral gene transfer. In U118MG- and U138MG-derived cells that had regained the ability to express hCAR in stable fashion, adenovirus-mediated gene transfer became highly efficient. Moreover, addition of the peptide corresponding to the extracellular domain of hCAR (ECD-hCAR) by preincubation significantly increased the adenovirus infectivity to these adenovirus-tolerant cells. These results suggest that hCAR could be one of important determinants of the infectivity of adenovirus, and that the ECD-hCAR might be a novel useful tool for improvement of adenovirus-mediated gene therapy against the adenovirus-tolerant cancer cells.