Photochemically enhanced adenoviral transduction in a multicellular environment
Abstract
Photochemical internalization (PCI) enhances adenovirus (Ad) transgene expression in a variety of cell lines in vitro. However, measurements of the photochemical effect on transduction in multicellular environments are lacking. In this study, spheroids of DU 145 prostate cancer cells were used as a model to evaluate Ad serotype 5 (Ad5) transduction in a multicellular environment in response to PCI treatment. Furthermore, the Ad5 was coated with poly(2-methyl-acrylic acid 2-[(2-(dimethylamino)-ethyl)-methyl-amino]-ethyl ester) (pDAMA) to evaluate whether physicochemical properties such as charge and size of viral vectors affect transduction of photochemically treated spheroids.
Spheroids incubated with photosensitizer TPPS2a (1 µg ml−1) and infected with adenovirus contained 3-fold higher percentage of reporter gene expressing cells after exposure to blue light (0.42 J cm−2) compared to no light, as analysed by