Fig. 5: Minigene circuits specifically and efficiently inhibited in vivo tumor growth and metastasis.

a The design of minigene circuits targeting cellular genes p21 and E-cadherin. Among them, p21 and E-cadherin are located on the recipient cell genome, while other components are located on the AAV vector. b The tumor volume was calculated once every 5 days after injecting AAVs. The minigene circuit with sgRNA control that had no targeted intracellular gene was used as the negative control circuit. Tumors treated with the minigene circuit (n = 5 animals) targeting p21 were dramatically smaller than those treated with the negative control (n = 5 animals). Data are shown as means of tumor weight ± SD. The small blue dots represent the weight of each sample. ^**p < 0.01, relative to the negative control using the two-tailed t-test. Exact p-values for asterisks (from left to right): 0.0006, 0.0004, and 0.037. Source data are provided as a Source Data file. c Quantification for bioluminescence imaging of a metastatic model. The minigene circuit with sgRNA control that had no targeted intracellular gene was used as the negative control circuit. The luminescent signal intensities for either minigene circuit targeting E-cadherin (n = 5 animals) or negative control circuit (n = 5 animals) are shown. Only tumors in lung regions were quantified by intraperitoneal D-luciferin administration, and then the signal intensities in lungs were calculated. The small blue dots represent the mean signal intensity of each mouse. ^**p < 0.01 (p = 0.029), relative to the negative control using the two-tailed t-test. AAV adeno-associated virus. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.