Wild Type p53 gene sensitizes rat C6 glioma cells to HSV-TK/ACV treatment in vitro and in vivo.

Suicide gene therapy using herpes simplex virus-thymidine kinase (HSV-TK)/ganciclovir (GCV), has been extensively tested for the treatment of glioma. Our previous study showed that exogenous wild type p53 (wt-p53) enhanced the anti-tumor effect of HSV-TK/GCV therapy. However, the use of GCV is hindered by its low penetration to the brain and its toxicity when used at higher dose. In the present study, we used another pro-drug, acyclovir (ACV), and examined the therapeutic efficacy of HSV-TK/ACV combining with wt-p53 in C6 glioma cells. We observed that wt-p53 combined with HSV-TK/ACV resulted in the super-additive anti-tumor effect in vitro. Exogenous wt-p53 significantly enhanced the sensitivity of TK positive C6 cells to ACV in vitro. Our in vivo experiment demonstrated that the effect of wt-p53 and HSV-TK/ACV combination therapy was better than that of HSV-TK/ACV alone. The survival time of tumor-bearing rats treated with wt-p53 in combination with HSV-TK/ACV was also significantly prolonged than those treated with HSV-TK/ACV alone. These results suggest that wt-p53 can enhance the therapeutic efficacy of HSV-TK/ACV both in vitro and in vivo. These findings are considerably valuable with the respect of using less toxic ACV as prodrug. This novel strategy could provide benefit to HSV-TK/prodrug gene therapy.