Adeno-Associated Virus Harboring Fusion Gene NT4-Ant-Shepherdin Induce Cell Death in Human Lung Cancer Cells

To further enhance anticancer effect of Shepherdin and overcome limitation of peptide therapy, recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) was constructed with following strategies: therapeutic peptide secretory expression and adeno-associated virus gene transfer system. MTT assay and flow cytometric analysis revealed that rAAV harboring fusion gene NT4-Ant-Shepherdin significantly suppressed A549 cell growth in a time-dependent manner and induced apoptosis. In the infected A549 cells, survivin expression level decreased strongly while Caspase-3/7 activities increased significantly. These results indicated that rAAV harboring fusion gene NT4-Ant-Shepherdin may be a novel strategy in lung cancer peptide therapy.