Abstract

Preclinical studies in animal models and human clinical trials have evaluated the safety and efficacy of adenoviral vectors for cancer gene therapy. These studies have indicated that gene delivery via adenoviral vectors, including p53 gene therapy, represents a promising therapeutic modality for many types of human cancers. This review focuses on novel strategies to induce apoptosis in glioma cells by transduction with adenoviral vectors carrying a variety of apoptosis-related genes, including Fas ligand, Fas, FADD, caspase-8, p53, p33ING1, p73α, Bax, Apaf-1, caspase-9, IκBdN, caspase-3, Bcl-2, and Bcl-XL. We conclude that adenoviral vector-mediated delivery of apoptosis-related genes other than p53 is a potentially useful gene therapy approach toward the treatment of human brain tumors.

Keywords: apoptosis, gene therapy, adenovirus, glioma, cancer