An Adenovirus Encoding Proapoptotic Bax Induces Apoptosis and Enhances the Radiation Effect in Human Ovarian Cancer (original) (raw)

Dysregulation of apoptosis may favor resistance to a variety of conventional therapies, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy (1-5). A candidate gene for enhancing the sensitivity of tumors to conventional treatment is the proapoptotic gene bax (6-8). Bax is a protein of the Bcl-2 family that promotes apoptosis (9). It is known that p53-mediated cell death is effected, in part, through downstream interactions with Bax (10). Bax has also been demonstrated to play a role as a tumor suppressor gene (11). Furthermore, mutations of bax have been identified in several human tumors including those derived from the breast, colon, and ovary (12-17). Additionally, restoration of wild-type bax has been shown to sensitize tumor cells to apoptosis (6, 18). Recently, our group has demonstrated that adenovi