Multiple proteins are involved in network regulation through the crosstalk of different signaling pathways in cancers. Here, we propose a novel strategy of genome therapy with branch-PCR-assembled gene nanovectors to perform network-based gene regulation at multiple levels for cancer therapy. To validate network-based multiplex-gene regulation for genome therapy, we chose to simultaneously target one tumor suppressor gene (TP53) and one oncogene (MYC) in two different signaling pathways. The results showed that, compared to gene nanovectors targeting single genes (NP-TP53 and NP-shMYC), branch-PCR-assembled gene nanovectors simultaneously expressing p53 proteins and MYC shRNA arrays (NP-TP53-shMYC) showed enhanced antitumor efficacy in both MDA-MB-231 cancer cells and an MDA-MB-231-tumor-bearing mouse model. These findings indicate the feasibility and effectiveness of genome therapy in cancer therapy.
Keywords: MYC; TP53; branch-PCR; cancer therapy; gene therapy; genome therapy; network regulation.