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PLoS One. 2013; 8(12): e83195.
Published online 2013 December 12. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0083195
PMCID: PMC3861497
Pegylated Interferon-α2a Inhibits Proliferation of Human Liver Cancer Cells In Vitro and In Vivo
Hironori Kusano,1,* Jun Akiba,1 Sachiko Ogasawara,1 Sakiko Sanada,1 Makiko Yasumoto,1 Masamichi Nakayama,1 Keiko Ueda,1 Kosuke Ueda,1 Takashi Kurita,1 Keita Todoroki,1 Yumi Umeno,1 Osamu Nakashima,2 and Hirohisa Yano1
Diego Calvisi, Editor
1Department of Pathology, Kurume University School of Medicine, Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan
2Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, Kurume University Hospital, Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan
Institut für Pathologie, Greifswald, Germany, Germany
* E-mail: [email protected]
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Conceived and designed the experiments: HK JA SO ON HY. Performed the experiments: HK JA SO SS MY MN KU KU TK KT YU ON HY. Analyzed the data: HK JA SO SS MY MN KU KU TK KT YU ON HY. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: HK JA SO SS MY MN KU KU TK KT YU ON HY. Wrote the manuscript: HK JA SO ON HY.
Abstract
Purpose
We investigated the effects of pegylated interferon-α2a (PEG-IFN-α2a) on the growth of human liver cancer cells.
Methods
The effect of PEG-IFN-α2a on the proliferation of 13 liver cancer cell lines was investigated in vitro. Cells were cultured with medium containing 0–4,194 ng/mL of PEG-IFN-α2a, and after 1, 2, 3, or 4 days of culture, morphologic observation and growth assay were performed. After hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells (HAK-1B and KIM-1) were transplanted into nude mice, various doses of PEG-IFN-α2a were subcutaneously administered to the mice once a week for 2 weeks, and tumor volume, weight, and histology were examined.
Results
PEG-IFN-α2a inhibited the growth of 8 and 11 cell lines in a time- and dose-dependent manner, respectively, although the 50% growth inhibitory concentrations of 7 measurable cell lines on Day 4 were relatively high and ranged from 253 ng/mL to 4,431 ng/mL. Various levels of apoptosis induction were confirmed in 8 cell lines. PEG-IFN-α2a induced a dose-dependent decrease in tumor volume and weight, and a significant increase of apoptotic cells in the tumor. Subcutaneous administration of clinical dose for chronic hepatitis C (3 μg/kg, 0.06 μg/mouse) was effective and induced about 30-50% reduction in the tumor volume and weight as compared with the control.
Conclusions
Although in vitro anti-proliferative effects of PEG-IFN-α2a were relatively weak, PEG-IFN-α2a induced strong anti-tumor effects on HCC cells in vivo. The data suggest potential clinical application of PEG-IFN-α2a for the prevention and treatment of HCC.
Introduction
Interferons (IFNs) are types of cytokine that are produced by host cells, such as leukocytes, in response to inflammation. Since IFNs possess antiviral activity, antiproliferative activity and various immunoregulatory activities, IFN therapy is used to treat patients with chronic viral hepatitis or certain types of cancer including malignant melanoma, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome-related Kaposi’s sarcoma and some hematopoietic malignancies [1,2]. Lai et al also showed that recombinant IFNα is useful in prolonging survival among patients with inoperable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) [3]. In addition, some studies showed IFN therapy might prevent either occurrence or recurrence after initial curative therapy of HCC, such as liver resection and radiofrequency ablation, in patient with chronic viral hepatitis [4–7]. This cancer preventive effect of IFNs is regarded mainly as results of their antiviral effect and the consequent suppression of inflammation, and might be due to their direct antitumor effect against clinically undetectable HCC as well. The detailed mechanism of the antitumor effect of IFNs, however, remains obscure.
Pegylated interferon-α2a (PEG-IFN-α2a) and pegylated interferon-α2b (PEG-IFN-α2b), which are used to treat patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) or B virus (HBV) infection, are modified IFNs that have longer serum half-life in body than non-pegylated forms of IFNs, therefore they can be given to patients only once a week, whereas a standard IFN without pegylation used to be injected up to three to five times a week. This once-a-week injection of pegylated IFNs in combination with daily oral dosing of the nucleoside analogue ribavirin has substantially improved the rate of sustained virological response in patients with chronic HCV infection and got a position as the first line therapy [8,9]. We previously reported that PEG-IFN-α2b which contains 12 kDa polyethylene glycol (PEG) has stronger antitumor effects in vivo than non-pegylated IFNs and this result might be indicating that continuous IFNs exposure to cancer cells in body is more effective than continual injection [10]. On the basis of above-described background, we examined the growth inhibitory effects of PEG-IFN-α2a which contains two chains of 20 kDa PEG and has the longest serum half-life among clinically available IFNs on liver cancer cell lines in vitro and in vivo.
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