Investigating the role of programmed necrosis in oncolytic adenovirus-induced death

Weigert, Melanie (2017) Investigating the role of programmed necrosis in oncolytic adenovirus-induced death. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Oncolytic viruses are a group of viruses that preferentially replicate in cancer cells and are a promising cancer treatment. However, how these oncolytic adenoviruses kill cancer cells is not fully understood. It was long thought that DNA viruses utilize apoptosis to induce cell death but there is now evidence that adenovirus and vaccinia cytotoxicity displays features of necrosis-like programmed cell death.
In order to investigate the role of necrosis in cell death as a result of oncolytic adenovirus infection, a panel of ovarian cancer cells with varying sensitivities to the oncolytic adenoviral mutant dl922-947 was used. Cells infected with dl922- 947 displayed key features of necrotic death. Using necrosis inhibitors necrostatin-1, necrosulfonamide, GSK2791840B, GSK2399872B and GSK2393843A, as well as RNAi-mediated knockdown of RIPK1, RIPK3 or MLKL, I showed that cells undergo RIPK3-dependent necrosis and that blockage of the downstream effector mixed lineage kinase domain-like (MLKL) attenuated cell death.
While Tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)-induced programmed necrosis(Laster, Wood and Gooding 1988) relies on the (RHIM)-dependent interaction of RIPK1 and RIPK3 (Li et al. 2012, Wu et al. 2014), RIPK1 seems to be redundant for adenovirus-induced death. Further, the addition of TNF-α blocking antibody to virus-infected cells showed no effect on either cell death.
Using a RIPK3 overexpression model, I showed that the amount adenovirus- induced cell death correlated with the amount of RIPK3 expression and that RIPK3 expression did not affect virus production, infectivity or the expression of viral proteins.
Further, in vivo experiments using human xenografts showed that expression of RIPK3 significantly improved anti-tumour activity following intra-tumoural injection of dl922-947.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: Ovarian cancer, adenovirus, programmed necrosis, cell death.
• Subjects: Q Science > Q Science (General); R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0254 Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology (including Cancer)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Cancer Sciences
• Supervisor's Name: McNeish, Professor Iain
• Date of Award: 2017
• Depositing User: Miss Melanie Weigert
• Unique ID: glathesis:2017-8054
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 03 Apr 2017 12:52
• Last Modified: 01 May 2017 09:21
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/8054