Ulrich Lauer

Shock wave permeabilization as a new gene transfer method

Uptake of naked functional DNA into mammalian cells can be achieved by a number of physical methods. However, for most of these techniques possibilities for therapeutic in vivo applications – especially to solid organs – are often limited. In this report, we describe shock wave permeabilization as a new physical gene transfer method, which can be easily applied, provides great flexibility in the size and sequence of the DNA molecules to be delivered, and which should exhibit an advantageous security profile in vivo. Upon exposure to lithotripter-generated shock waves eukaryotic cells display a temporary increase in membrane permeability. This effect was shown to be caused by cavitation resulting in the transient generation of cell pores which allows the direct transfer of naked plasmid DNA. Shockwave transfection of a variety of cell lines was demonstrated. Since shock waves can be well focused within particular body regions, future applications of extracorporally generated shock waves to tissues simultaneously perfused with DNA solutions might open up the possibility of achieving a regionally enhanced in vivo gene transfer.

Caspase-8 and Apaf-1-independent Caspase-9 Activation in Sendai Virus-infected Cells

Apoptotic cell death is of central importance in the pathogenesis of viral infections. Activation of a cascade of cysteine proteases, i.e. caspases, plays a key role in the effector phase of virus-induced apoptosis. However, little is known about pathways leading to the activation of initiator caspases in virus-infected host cells. Recently, we have shown that Sendai virus (SeV) infection triggers apoptotic cell death by activation of the effector caspase-3 and initiator caspase-8. We now investigated mechanisms leading to the activation of another initiator caspase, caspase-9. Unexpectedly we found that caspase-9 cleavage is not dependent on the presence of active caspases-3 or -8. Furthermore, the presence of caspase-9 in mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) cells was a prerequisite for Sendai virus-induced apoptotic cell death. Caspase-9 activation occurred without the release of cytochrome cfrom mitochondria and was not dependent on the presence of Apaf-1 or reactive oxygen intermediates. Our results therefore suggest an alternative mechanism for caspase-9 activation in virally infected cells beside the well characterized pathways via death receptors or mitochondrial cytochrome c release.

The hepatitis B virus transactivator HBx causes elevation of diacylglycerol and activation of protein kinase C

Chronic infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) is accompanied by an increasing risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma. There are indications that the HBx protein of HBV is involved in the process of tumour formation. HBx also transactivates several transcription factor binding sites. Recently, we reported that HBx can use a tumour promotor pathway for transactivation. In particular, we found that transactivation of the binding motif for transcription factor AP-1 (JUN/FOS) by HBx is dependent on functional protein kinase C (PKC), as indicated by abolition of the transcriptional stimulation following downregulation or inhibition of the enzyme. Moreover, HBx activates PKC, probably via increasing the endogenous PKC activator sn-1,2-diacylglycerol (DAG). Here we extend these data and report on the time course of PKC activation. We found that activation of PKC by HBx is transient and differs from activation of PKC by the ras oncogene product or phorbol ester in that it does not lead to rapid downregulation of the enzyme subsequent to the activation. Moreover, we provide evidence that an increase in cellular DAG is observable not only as an early event in response to HBx but also in cell lines transformed after transfection with HBV DNA and stably expressing HBx. Besides its important role in the regulation of cellular genes, PKC is also the intracellular receptor for tumour-promoting agents and an activator of proto-oncogenes, suggesting that our observations might provide an explanation for the oncogenic properties of HBx.