Tumor-specific promoter

a tumor-specific, promoter technology, applied in the direction of phosphorous compound active ingredients, drug compositions, biocides, etc., can solve the problems of limited application range of gene therapy using these promoters, low activity, and lack of flexibility of promoters, so as to achieve high tumor-specificity and promoter activity, and effective use of gene therapy

Inactive Publication Date: 2006-05-11
PRIMMUNE CORP +1
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0012] After intensive and extensive research in order to obtain tumor-specific promoters that have fully high tumor-specificity and promoter activity, the present inventor has found that by using specific partial sequences within the 2.3 kb localized in the 5′-end upstream region of the midkine gene as a promoter or by using specific partials sequence in the regulatory regions of the c-erbB-2 gene as a promoter, a tumor-specific promoter having a fully high tumor-specificity and promoter activity can be obtained, and that it can be effectively used for gene therapy, and thereby have completed the present invention.

Problems solved by technology

However, these promoters lack flexibility since the scope in which they can be applied is limited and the promoter activity is not high.
Thus, the gene therapy using these promoters has a very limited scope of application.
However, the tumor-specificity and the promoter activity of the 2.3 kb at the 5′-end upstream region of the midkine gene is not fully high.
However, this region does not have fully high tumor-specificity or high promoter activity, either.

Method used

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Examples

Experimental program
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example 1

The Isolation of Tumor-Specific Promoters from the Midkine Gene

[0049] A vector system for the analysis of the midkine transcription control region was obtained in the following manner.

[0050] A plasmid phgMK2.3K / CAT (Pedraza, C R et al., J. Biochem., 117:845-859, 1995) was cleaved with XhoI and NcoI or with XhoI and Eco47 III to obtain a 4.0 kb DNA fragment containing 1.0 kb of the midkine genomic gene and a 3.4 kb DNA fragment containing 0.6 kb of the midkine genomic gene, respectively. Using DNA ligase, these fragments were prepared as circular DNA. As a result, plasmids were obtained that contained respective 2.3 kb (MK2.3) of the human midkine genomic gene having the base sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 3, 1.0 kb (MK1.0) of the same gene having the base sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 2, and 0.6 kb (MK0.6) of the same gene having the base sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1, and, downstream thereof, the CAT (chloramphenicol acetyltransferase) gene has been ligated.

example 2

Examination on Transcription Activity by Tumor-Specific Promoters Derived from the Midkine Gene

[0051] Using the above plasmid, or a plasmid pCAT-Control (manufactured by Promega) having the promoter of SV40 virus, and a plasmid pCAT-Basic (manufactured by Promega) containing no promoters, gene introduction was performed on the lung cancer cells QG-56, the neuroblastoma NGP, and the normal human fibroblasts MRC-5 that were being cultured in a DMEM (Sigma) supplemented with 10% bovine fetal serum. After 10 μg each of these plasmids and lipofectin (Life Technologies) were mixed, it was allowed to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes to form a complex. Then the complex, after removing the bovine fetal serum therefrom, was contacted with the cells. Eight hours later culture medium supplemented with bovine fetal serum was added, cultured for 40 hours, and then the gene-introduced cells were disrupted by ultrasonication. After centrifugation, the supernatants were used to examine the...

example 3

Tumor-Specific Cytotoxic Effects Using Tumor-Specific Promoters Derived from the Midkine Gene

[0056] (1) In order to examine cytotoxic effects by the transcription activity of the promoter obtained from the midkine gene, herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSV-TK), a suicide gene, was ligated downstream of MK0.6 and MK2.3, and the plasmid was introduced in cells, and a prodrug gancyclovir (GCV) was added into the culture medium of the gene-introduced cells. The method of determining the cytotoxic effect by this system is as described in Moolten, F L. Cancer Gene Ther., 1:279-287, 1994.

[0057] First, the CMV promoter of pcDNA3 (manufactured by Invitrogen) was removed using NruI and HindIII sites, to which MK2.3 or Mk0.6 was inserted, and then using the EcoRV site, the HSV-TK gene excised from pMK (Brinster, R L et al., Cell, 27:223-231, 1981) with BglI and EcoRI was inserted. Each of the plasmids thus obtained (MK2.3-TK and MK0.6-TK) was introduced, as described above, using lipo...

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Abstract

A DNA comprising a 609 bp base sequence from −559 to +50 when the first base sequence of exon 1 of the midkine gene, a human retinoic acid-responsive growth / differentiation factor was set as +1, or a DNA comprising a 251 bp base sequence from −213 to +38 when the transcription initiation point of the c-erbB-2 gene belonging to the EGF receptor family and having a tyrosine kinase activity was set as +1 has a tumor-specific transcription activity, and the promoter activity thereof is high, and therefore is very important as a tumor-specific promoter for use in the suicide gene therapy that combines the use of a gene for a drug metabolizing enzyme and a prodrug for cancer therapy, the gene therapy of cancer using an expression vector that contains a gene encoding a cytokine, and the gene therapy of cancer using an oncolytic virus.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 10 / 333,013, filed Apr. 10, 2003 as a 371 application based on PCT / JP01 / 06228 having an international filing date of Jul. 18, 2001.TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] The present invention relates to a tumor-specific promoter that permits the expression of foreign genes in tumor cells or tumor tissues in a tumor-specific manner. More specifically, it relates to a tumor-specific promoter that enables a high transcriptional activity in tumor cells or tumor tissues in a tumor-specific manner, and that can be widely used in gene therapy of cancer, for example, suicide gene therapy comprising a gene encoding a drug metabolizing enzyme and a prodrug for cancer therapy, immune gene therapy that treats cancer by introducing cytokine genes into cancer cells and thus by enhancing the body's immunological functions and gene therapy of cancer using an oncolytic virus that kills only tumor cells, and t...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & Authority Applications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): A61K48/00C12N15/86A61K31/7072A61K31/7076A61K31/522A61K31/66A61P35/00C07K14/475C07K14/71
CPCA61K48/00A61K48/0058C07K14/475C07K14/71A61P35/00A61P43/00
Inventor TAGAWA, MASATOSHI
Owner PRIMMUNE CORP
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