CEA启动子控制HSV—TK基因表达对人结直肠癌细胞的杀伤作用

Experimental treatment for human colorectal carcinoma by tissue type specific expression of herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase gene]

An expression plasmid pCEA-TK, in which HSV-TK gene was under the control of CEA promoter, was constructed. The human colorectal carcinoma cell line LoVo or the human uterine cervical cancer cell line HeLa was co-transfected with pSV2-neo and pCEATK, respectively. After G418 selection, both transgenic cell clones (LoVo/CEATK and HeLa/CEATK) were obtained. LoVo/CEATK cells were 1300 times more sensitive to the cytotoxicity of ganciclovir than LoVo cells. However, the elevation of GCV sensitivity induced by pCEATK gene in HeLa line was only 8 times. Injection of GCV resulted in significant regression of HSV-TK transfected LoVo tumor in nude mice. These data suggested that the expression of TK gene driven by CEA promoter specifically killed CEA-positive colorectal carcinoma cells. Transmission electromicroscopy and DNA fragmentation assay demonstrated that GCV could induce apoptosis in LoVo/CEATK cells. The possibility of the CEATK/GCV system in the treatment of human colorectal carcinoma was discussed.