65. Oncolytic Measles Virus Differentially Affects Mitochondrial Biogenesis in Transformed versus Non-Transformed BM-Derived MSCs
Authors: Sarah Aref, Aditi Dey, Katharine Bailey, Benjamin Rosen, Anna Castleton, Gyorgy Szabadkai, Adele K. Fielding
Journal: Molecular Therapy (2016)

Vaccine strain measles virus (MV) is oncolytic in numerous models of malignancy. The mechanism behind the selectivity of MV for transformed cells is poorly understood. To investigate further, an established step-wise model of cellular transformation was used; in which progressive oncogenic hits were stably and additively expressed in human bone marrow derived mesenchymal stromal cells following retroviral transfer of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), human papilloma virus16 E6 and E7 (3H), SV40 small T antigen (4+V), finally, H-RAS (5H) (Funes at al, 2007). The most highly transformed cells (5H) were more permissive to oncolytic MV infection than any of the less transformed counterparts, with significantly greater viral titres. MV-induced cell-death increased progressively with progressive transformation. This was not explained by any differences in MV receptors CD46, SLAM or Nectin-4 expression. Investigation of anti-viral type 1 IFN response in this model 24 and 48 hours post MV infection (hpi) by ELISA demonstrated a robust induction of IFNβ (to a lesser extent IFNα) in hTERT cells, which was significantly and progressively reduced in 3H, 4+V and 5H according to level of transformation, suggesting that defective IFN pathway is a potential mechanism for the enhanced MV permissiveness observed in transformed cells. Examination of integrity of the RLR signalling pathway, which triggers IFNα/β production, revealed that expression levels of RIG-I, MDA5 and MAVS, determined by RQ-PCR at 6, 12, 24 and 48 hpi, were lowest in 5H and highest in hTERT cells, proposing a role for the RLR pathway in MV-mediated oncolysis. To gain insight into the differential effects of MV infection in transformed versus non-transformed cells, metabolic effects post MV infection were investigated. A significant increase in oxygen consumption rate (OCR) was observed 24 hpi, proportional to the stage of transformation, followed by a steep decline at 48 hpi. This increase was abrogated in the presence of fusion inhibitory peptide (FIP), implicating the role of syncytia formation, the cytopathic effect of MV infection, in MV-mediated oncolysis in vitro. A similar pattern was observed in ATP levels post MV infection; highest at 24hpi in 4+V and 5H and dropping off dramatically at 48hpi when cell viability is compromised. To further characterize the consistent increase in OCR and ATP levels upon MV infection of the more transformed cell lines, we sought to assess mitochondrial biogenesis using the fluorescent probes TMRM, Calcein AM and Hoechst. Preliminary results indicated significantly increasing numbers of mitochondria per cell at 24 hpi principally in 4+V (16%) and 5H (~29%) cells compared to their uninfected counterparts potentially explaining the observed high levels of OCR and ATP. Altogether, our data suggests that altered mitochondrial numbers and functions correlate with the degree of MV permissiveness and thus MV-induced cell death. Mitochondrial mass was also seen to be increased with MV infection. However, this effect was not specific to transformed cells. Metabolomics and further evaluations will be crucial to comprehensively assess differences in metabolism between cells in this model and to understand the role of bioenergetics in the differential levels of MV-mediated oncolysis.