Fusogenic membrane glycoproteins induce syncytia formation and death in vitro and in vivo: a potential therapy agent for lung cancer.

Fusogenic membrane glycoproteins (FMGs) are viral envelope proteins, which bind surface receptors and induce fusion of the cell membrane. An FMG-transfected cell will fuse with neighbor cells, thus forming syncytia that die within 5 days. In this report, plasmids encoding for FMGs from Human Endogenous Retrovirus-W (HERV-W) was compared with Gibbon Ape Leukemia Virus (GALV) and feline endogenous virus RD-114 (RD). These plasmids were transfected in human non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells in vitro or directly injected into tumors in mice. All FMGs induced the formation of syncytia containing around 50 cells. HERV-W or GALV FMGs decreased up to 80% of cell viability in vitro and inhibited tumor growth in vivo (60-70% reduction). In contrast, RD FMG was not efficient. Apoptosis played a role in the death of the syncytia, but addition of the caspase inhibitor Z-VAD-fmk had no effect, suggesting that apoptosis is not the only mechanism responsible for FMG-induced cell death. Altogether, our results demonstrate that even at very low transfection efficiency, the antitumor activity of HERV-W FMG is as effective as that of GALV in vitro and in vivo for the treatment of human lung tumors.