Correlation between live attenuated measles viral load and growth inhibition percentage in non-small cell lung cancer cell line

Abstract

Objective This study was performed to evaluate the anticancer effect of live attenuated measles virus (Edmonston strain) on human lung cancer cell line in vitro.
Methods Human lung cancer cell line (A549) was treated with different titers of the propagated live attenuated measles virus on Vero cells, including 10−1, 10−2, 10−3, 10−4, 10−5 of virus stock (8.860 log10 RNA copies/μl). The virus cytopathic effect (CPE) was studied at 24, 48, 72, and96 hr. Oncolytic effects of the virus were assessed by cytotoxicity assay, apoptosis analysis, and proliferation marker Ki-67. The growthinhibition pe rcentage was determined by ELISA reader using crystal violet staining assay and compared with the viral load measured byquantitative real time-PCR.
Results The results of the study showed that measles virus had an inhibitory effect on the growth of human lung cancer cell line comparedwith untreated control group. There was highly significant positive correlation between viral load and PGI at 24, 48, 72, 96 hr (P < 0.001).The growth inhibition rate of a cell was associated with a decrement in t he expression of the Ki-67 protein and increase in the ratio of earlyand late apoptotic cells in comparison with untreated control group.
Conclusion Live attenuated measles virus strain induced cytotoxic effect against human lung cancer cell line (A549) by induction of apoptosis as an important mechanism of anti-tumor activity, in addition, it indicates a correlation between the quantity of MV genomesand percentage of growth inhibition. This relation  has proved that measles virus had anticancer effect.