p53-dependent antiviral RNA-interference facilitates tumor-selective viral replication

RNA-interference (RNAi) is a potent tool for specific gene silencing. In this study, we developed an adenovirus for conditional replication in p53-dysfunctional tumor cells that uses p53-selective expression of a microRNA-network directed against essential adenoviral genes. Compared to a control virus that expressed a scrambled microRNA-network, antiviral RNAi selectively attenuated viral replication in cells with transcriptionally active p53, but not in p53-dysfunctional tumor cells where both viruses replicated equivalently. Since these results were confirmed by an in vivo comparison of both viruses after infection of p53-knockout and normal mice, we could demonstrate that attenuated replication was indeed a result of p53-selective exhibition of antiviral RNAi. Addressing the therapeutic applicability, we could show that the application of RNAi-controlled virus efficiently lysed p53-dysfunctional tumors in vitro and in vivo but resulted in drastically reduced load of virus-DNA in the liver of treated mice. We have generated a broadly applicable adenovirus for selective destruction of p53-dysfunctional tumors and thereby demonstrate that virus-encoded RNAi-networks represent an efficient and versatile tool to modify viral functions. RNAi-networks can be applied to all transcriptionally regulated DNA-viruses to remodulate viral tropism and thus provide means to generate specifically replicating vectors for clinical applications.