Targeting gene expression to tumor cells with loss of wild-type p53 function (original) (raw)

Cancer Gene Therapy volume 7, pages 4–12 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

The tumor suppressor protein p53 is a transcription factor that can positively regulate the expression of critical target genes involved in negative control of cell growth or induction of apoptosis; p53 is also able to suppress the transcription of other genes by virtue of its ability to bind components of the basal transcription machinery. Over 50% of human tumors are characterized by p53 mutations that result in a loss of wild-type p53 (wtp53) function in the transcriptional control of these target genes. We have exploited this loss of p53 function in the regulation of gene transcription to develop a novel gene therapy strategy that maximizes expression of the potential therapeutic gene in tumors while simultaneously down-regulating the same gene in normal cells. In one construct (unit I), the potential therapeutic gene (in this case represented by a luciferase reporter) is placed under the control of a promoter such as the heat shock protein 70 gene promoter, which is repressed by wtp53 but overexpressed in many tumor cells with defective p53 function. Residual expression of the reporter in normal cells is repressed by cotransfection of another construct (unit II) consisting of a repressor of unit I under the control of a promoter that is activated by wtp53 expression. Unit II contains a promoter with a consensus wtp53 binding site driving a transcriptional repressor or an antisense construct for the gene in unit I. Our results suggest that this dual control approach may represent a strategy with wide applications in the field of cancer gene therapy.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 12 print issues and online access

$259.00 per year

only $21.58 per issue

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Additional access options:

Similar content being viewed by others

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Oncology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
    Jingde Zhu, Baomei Gao, Jiangqin Zhao & Allan Balmain
  2. Division of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Cathcart Laboratory, Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
    Jingde Zhu
  3. Shanghai Institute of Cell Biology, Academia Sinica, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
    Baomei Gao
  4. University of California Cancer Center, San Francisco, 94143, California
    Allan Balmain

Authors

  1. Jingde Zhu
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  2. Baomei Gao
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  3. Jiangqin Zhao
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  4. Allan Balmain
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence toJingde Zhu.

Rights and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Zhu, J., Gao, B., Zhao, J. et al. Targeting gene expression to tumor cells with loss of wild-type p53 function.Cancer Gene Ther 7, 4–12 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.cgt.7700091

Download citation

Keywords

This article is cited by