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Burkholderia Lethal Factor 1, a Novel Anti-Cancer Toxin, Demonstrates Selective Cytotoxicity in MYCN-Amplified Neuroblastoma Cells

Rust, A; Shah, S; Hautbergue, GM; Davletov, B; (2018) Burkholderia Lethal Factor 1, a Novel Anti-Cancer Toxin, Demonstrates Selective Cytotoxicity in MYCN-Amplified Neuroblastoma Cells. Toxins , 10 (7) , Article 261. 10.3390/toxins10070261. Green open access

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Abstract

Immunotoxins are being investigated as anti-cancer therapies and consist of a cytotoxic enzyme fused to a cancer targeting antibody. All currently used toxins function via the inhibition of protein synthesis, making them highly potent in both healthy and transformed cells. This non-specific cell killing mechanism causes dose-limiting side effects that can severely limit the potential of immunotoxin therapy. In this study, the recently characterised bacterial toxin Burkholderia lethal factor 1 (BLF1) is investigated as a possible alternative payload for targeted toxin therapy in the treatment of neuroblastoma. BLF1 inhibits translation initiation by inactivation of eukaryotic initiation translation factor 4A (eIF4A), a putative anti-cancer target that has been shown to regulate a number of oncogenic proteins at the translational level. We show that cellular delivery of BLF1 selectively induces apoptosis in neuroblastoma cells that display MYCN amplification but has little effect on non-transformed cells. Future immunotoxins based on this enzyme may therefore have higher specificity towards MYCN-amplified cancer cells than more conventional ribosome-inactivating proteins, leading to an increased therapeutic window and decreased side effects.

Type: Article
Title: Burkholderia Lethal Factor 1, a Novel Anti-Cancer Toxin, Demonstrates Selective Cytotoxicity in MYCN-Amplified Neuroblastoma Cells
Location: Switzerland
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.3390/toxins10070261
Publisher version: http://doi.org/10.3390/toxins10070261
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords: BLF1, MYCN, apoptosis, cancer, eIF4A, neuroblastoma, ribosome-inactivating protein
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10052638
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