Oncolytic adenoviruses (OAds) have attracted much attention as novel
anticancer agents. Numerous studies have examined the antitumour effects of combinational use of an OAd and
anticancer agents; however, few chemical compounds enhancing OAd
infection have been reported. In this study, we screened a food and drug administration (FDA)-approved
drug library containing 1134 small chemical compounds to identify chemical compounds that enhance OAd replication in human tumour cells. We found that
domperidone, a
dopamine D2 receptor antagonist, significantly enhanced the replication of an OAd in human tumour cells, including human pancreatic tumour cells, by two-fivefold, resulting in improvement of OAd-mediated tumour cell killing activities. The E1A
mRNA levels were significantly increased in
domperidone-pre-treated cells following OAd
infection, which contributed to the promotion of OAd replication. However,
mRNA levels of the
dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2), which is known to be a target molecule of
domperidone, were undetectable in most of the tumour cells by real-time reverse transcription (RT)-PCR analysis, indicating that
domperidone promoted OAd replication by acting on a molecule other than DRD2. This study provides important clues for the improvement of OAd-mediated
cancer therapy.