PLOS ONE · 12 authors, 9 centres
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Researchers developed novel conditionally replicating adenoviruses to detect circulating tumor cells in lung cancer patients. The new adenovirus (rAdF35-E1-2A-GFP-ADP) showed a comparable detection efficiency (58.8% of patients) to the previously developed virus, with higher virus production titers.
This study developed novel conditionally replicating adenoviruses to improve the detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in lung cancer patients. The primary novel construct, rAdF35-E1-2A-GFP-ADP, was compared to a previously developed virus (rAdF35-142T-GFP) in vitro and in patient blood samples. In cultured tumor cell lines, the new virus achieved significantly higher production titers (about 4-fold) and showed that inclusion of the ADP gene increased GFP-positive tumor cells. However, when testing blood samples from 17 lung cancer patients, both viruses detected GFP+/CD45- CTCs in 10 patients (58.8%), demonstrating comparable detection efficiency. The study confirms the method's sensitivity is comparable to previous reports. Limitations include the small sample size of 17 patients and the potential that CTCs negative for hTERT, the promoter driving viral replication, might not be detected. The findings support the utility of adenovirus-based methods for CTC detection but highlight the need for further development to target a broader range of tumor cells.
