Construction of a regulatable cancer-specific adenoviral expression system using human telomerase reverse transcriptase gene promoter.

ABSTRACT

We constructed a novel cancer-specific regulatable adenoviral expression system comprising two vectors one expressing rtTA, a reverse tetracycline transactivator regulated by the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) gene promoter, the other expressing the target gene regulated by the tetracycline response element (TRE). rtTA transactivates target gene expression in the presence of doxycycline. Using these vectors, we constructed an adenoviral expression system, the Tel-On system, which enables highly efficient target gene transduction. This system enabled efficient and regulatable cancer-specific gene expression, and can be used in targeted cancer gene therapy.