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Metastatic lung cancer is one of the most lethal forms of cancer and molecular pathways driving metastasis are still not clearly elucidated. Metastatic cancer cells undergo an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) where they lose their epithelial properties and acquire a migratory and invasive phenotype. Here we identify that the expression of microRNAs from the miR-200 family and the miR-183~96~182 cluster are significantly co-repressed in non-small cell lung cancer cell lines and primary tumors from multiple TCGA dataset with high EMT scores. Ectopic expression of the miR-183~96~182 cluster inhibited cancer cell migration and invasion, whereas its expression was tightly modulated by miR-200. We identified Foxf2 as a common, novel and direct target of both these microRNA families. Foxf2 expression tightly correlates with the transcription factor Zeb1 and is elevated in mesenchymal-like metastatic lung cancer cells. Foxf2 expression induced robust EMT, migration, invasion and metastasis in lung cancer cells, whereas Foxf2 inhibition significantly repressed these phenotypes. We also demonstrated that Foxf2 transcriptionally represses E-cadherin and miR-200, independent of Zeb1, to form a double-negative feedback loop. We, therefore, identified a novel mechanism whereby the miR-200 family and the miR-183~96~182 cluster inhibit lung cancer invasion and metastasis by targeting Foxf2.

The ideal gene therapy for metabolical liver disorders would target hepatocytes before the onset of disease and be durable, non-toxic and non-immunogenic. Early gestational gene transfer can achieve such goals. Here, we demonstrate that prenatal gene transfer of human Atp7b reduces liver pathology and improves biochemical markers in Atp7b(-/-) mice, a murine model of Wilson's disease (WD). Following prenatal injection of lentivirus vector containing the human Atp7b gene under the transcriptional control of a liver-specific promoter, the full-length ATP7B was detectable in mouse livers for the entire duration of experiments (20 weeks after birth). In contrast to a marked pathology in non-injected animals, livers from age-matched treated mice consistently demonstrated normal gross and histological morphology. Hepatic copper content was decreased in the majority of treated mice, although remaining copper levels varied. Improvement of hepatic copper metabolism was further apparent from the presence of copper-bound ceruloplasmin in the sera and normalization of the mRNA levels for HMG CoA-reductase. With this approach, the complete loss of copper transport function can be ameliorated, as evident from phenotypical improvement in treated Atp7b(-/-) mice. This study provides proof of principle for in utero gene therapy in WD and other liver-based enzyme deficiencies.

Gene therapy has been applied to murine models of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) using a number of different strategies to downregulate inflammation in synovial joints. However, prolonged joint expression has been problematic. Our laboratory has found that early gestational intravascular injection of lentiviral vector leads to efficient transduction and sustained transgene expression in articular cartilage and synovium. In this study, we show that in utero gene transfer of IL-10 can prevent and decrease pathology in a murine model of RA. Following prenatal injection of lentiviral vector containing murine IL-10 gene, the cytokine was detectable in the serum, and the green fluorescent protein reporter gene was detectable in chondrocytes and synoviocytes of adult mice up to 21 weeks of age. Adult mice that had been treated prenatally were later immunized against type II collagen to induce an autoimmune arthritis. Compared with controls, prenatally treated mice demonstrated delayed onset of arthritis, decreased frequency of arthritis and markedly decreased severity of disease, by both clinical and histological criteria. This effect was directly related to levels of IL-10 expression, but no immunosuppressive effects of the therapy were observed. This study demonstrates proof of principle for the prenatal prevention and amelioration of RA by early gestational gene transfer of the anti-inflammatory cytokine, IL-10.