We constructed a CCL21/IL21 co-expression CRAds (conditionally replicating adenoviruses) based on AdEasy system. The Ad-CCL21-IL21 contains three plasmids: pGTE-IL21, pShuttle-CMV-CCL21 and AdEasy-1, Escherichia coli strain BJ5183, and packaging cell line 293.
Ad-CCL21-IL21 could selectively replicate in TERT-positive tumor cells, because the plasmid pGTE-IL21 contained the promoter of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERTp).
Our results showed that Ad-CCL21-IL21 induced oncolytic effects and tumor-specific cytotoxicity of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) in vitro.
This study suggests that Ad-CCL21-IL21 can induce antitumor immune response in tumor tissues and this platform can be modified to generate novel CRAds with other transgenes.