KPC pancreatic cancer cells are a novel immunocompetent murine model supporting human adenovirus replication and tumor oncolysis

Oncolytic adenoviral therapy is a promising approach for pancreatic cancer treatment. However, the limited capacity of murine cells to produce infectious viral progeny precludes the full evaluation of the virotherapy in a suitable immunocompetent mouse model. Here, we report that the murine KPC-I cell line, established from pancreatic tumors developed in <i>LSL-K</i> <i>r</i> <i>as</i> ^<i>G12D</i> ; <i>LSL-T</i> <i>r</i> <i>p53</i> ^<i>R172H</i> ; <i>Pdx-Cre</i> mice, is susceptible to adenoviral replication and generates a progeny of infective virions similar to those from infected human A549 cells. A comparative study with the semipermissive murine CMT64.6 cells reveals that adenoviral infection of KPC-I cells substantially increases the release of infective particles, with a correlating enhanced susceptibility to adenovirus-induced autophagy. Remarkably, systemic delivery of the oncolytic adenovirus AdNuPARE1A in athymic mice bearing KPC-I tumors results in significant inhibition of tumor growth. Moreover, KPC-I tumors in immunocompetent mice with intratumoral administration of AdNuPARE1A or ICOVIR15kDelE3 display significant antitumoral effects, with evidence of adenoviral replication. Collectively, our data show that KPC-I cells are permissive to human oncolytic adenovirus replication, rendering KPC-I syngeneic tumors an interesting model to evaluate the multifaceted antitumor activities of oncolytic adenovirus.