Conditional RNA interference in vivo to study mutant p53 oncogenic gain of function on tumor malignancy

Mutant p53 proteins are thought to have acquired a "gain of function" (GOF) activity that mainly contributes to tumor aggressiveness. Previously we reported that constitutive downregulation of mutant p53 by RNA interference reduces the tumorigenicity of cancer cells in an animal model; however, effects of adaptation to long-term mutant p53 inhibition could not be excluded. To address this point, mimicking more physiological conditions, we now …