The huh-7 cell line was derived from a liver tumor in a 57-year-old japanese male patient in 1982. hepatocellular carcinoma (hcc) represents approximately the sixth most prevalent cancer worldwide and due to the poor prognosis it is also the fourth causeof death related to cancer.
oncolytic viruses infect, replicate in, and lyse tumour cells but spare the normal ones. one of oncolytic viruses is a naturally occurring replication competent reovirus, which preferentially kills tumor cells with activated ras signaling pathways. therefore, hcc may be a candidate target for reovirus therapy.
Methods
Reovirus (serotype 3), liver cancer cell line (huh-7) and normal human fibroblast cells were used in this study. in vitro, reovirus infection and its cytopathic effect (cpe) on huh-7 and normal human fibroblast cells was assessed by light microscop. also, viral rna replication were examined at different time of post infection. replication of viral rna was determined by real time-pcr assay.
Results
In huh-7 cell line, prominent morphological changes were observed in cells. in contrast, the normal human fibroblast cells did not show apparent cpe after infection. the rt-pcr results showed that there is a direct relation between reovirus rna amount and it′s duration time of cell infection with reovirus; while this relation is not observed in normal human fibroblast cells.
Conclusion
Our result demonstrated that reovirus has the special potential for destruction of cancer cells. this finding shows that reovirus can be considered for a novel agent for hcc therapy.
