Local treatment as a treatment modality is gaining increased general acceptance over time. Novel drugs and methodologies of local administration are being investigated in an effort to achieve disease local control. Suicide gene therapy is a method that has been investigated as a local treatment with simultaneously distant disease control. In our current experiment we purchased HTB-70 (
melanoma cell line, derived from metastatic axillary node) and CRL-2302 (human
retinal epithelium) were from ATCC LGC Standards and
Ancotil(®), 2.5 g/250 ml (1 g/00ml) (5-Flucytosine) MEDA; Pharmaceuticals Ltd. UK.
Adenosine Cytosine Deaminase (Ad.CD) was also used in order to convert the
pro-drug 5-Flucytosine to the active 5-Fluoracil. Three different concentrations of 5-Flucytosine (5-FC) were administered (0.2ml, 0.8ml and 1.2ml). At indicated time-points (4h, 8h and 24h) cell viability and apoptosis were measured. Our concept was to investigate whether suicide gene therapy with Ad. CD-5-FC could be used with safety and efficiency as a future local treatment for
melanoma located in the eye cavity. Indeed, our results indicated that in every 5-FC administration had mild cytotoxicity for the
retinal cells, while increased apoptosis was observed for the
melanoma cell line.