Anti-tumor Effect of Newcastle Disease Virus Expressing IL-2 in Lung Cancer Model

Recombinant Newcastle disease virus （rNDV） has shown an anti-cancer effect in preclinical studies,but has never been tested for lung cancer models.This study explored the anti-cancer activity of genetically modified NDV expressing IL-2 （rNDV–IL-2） in lung cancer models.This study used Lewis lung carcinoma cell line （LLC） to create tumor models in C57 female mice,the tumor-bearing mice were treated with rNDV-IL-2,rNDV and phosphate-buffered saline （PBS）,respectively.In vitro results revealed that rNDV effectively infected malignant cells and expressed IL-2,in vivo results revealed that rNDV expressing IL-2 was highly efficient in inhibiting lung cancer tumors,with an average tumor size of 291.255 mm~3 in rNDV-IL-2 group compared to 763.068 mm~3 in rNDV group and 1 101.68 mm~3 in PBS group.For the survival studies,treatment with rNDV-IL-2 enhanced the survival rates of tumor-bearing mice by 36% compared to those of rNDV treated mice and by 80% compared to those of vehicle-treated mice （survival rate:12 out of 15 for rNDV-IL-2 group;seven out of 15 for rNDV group and zero out of 15 for vehicle group）.These results demonstrated that rNDV-expressed IL-2 enhanced the intrinsic anti-tumor ability of Newcastle disease virus in lung cancer models by further restrain of lung tumor growth and improvement of the survival rates of the tumor-bearing mice.The genetically modified rNDV-IL-2 was a good candidate for lung cancer therapy.