1. ¹Department of Medicine, Division of Human Gene Therapy, The Gene Therapy Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
2. ²Department of Pathology, Division of Human Gene Therapy, The Gene Therapy Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
3. ³Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
4. ⁴Department of Dermatology, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany
5. ⁵Department of Anesthesiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
6. ⁶Department of Therapeutic Gene Modulation, University Center for Pharmacy, University of Groningen, Netherlands

Correspondence: Dr DT Curiel, Division of Human Gene Therapy, Gene Therapy Center, Biomedical Research Bldg II, Rm 508, 2172, 901 19th Street S., University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35291, USA

Received 20 September 2003; Accepted 18 May 2004; Published online   .

Abstract

Gene therapy is a novel therapy for melanoma. To date, however, there is still no powerful tumor specific promoter (TSP) to restrict the transgene expression in melanoma cells. In order to define a useful TSP for targeting in the context of melanoma gene therapy, four promoters, the cyclooxygenase-2 (Cox-2), -chemokine SDF-1 receptor (CXCR4), epithelial glycoprotein 2 (EGP-2), and survivin, were tested in both established melanoma cell lines and primary melanoma cells. We employed recombinant adenoviral vectors (reAds) each with a candidate TSP (the Cox-2, CXCR4, EGP-2, or survivin), a reporter luciferase gene, and a poly-A signal, all of which were inserted into the E1-deleted region. A reAdGL3Bcytomegalovirus (CMV), containing the CMV promoter and luciferase gene, was used as a positive control to normalize the luciferase activity. Luciferase activity was measured in multiple tumor cell lines and two primary melanoma cell cultures after infection with reAds. Human epithelial melanocytes, HEM, were used as normal control. In contrast to three other promoters, the survivin promoter exhibited the highest activities within both melanoma cell lines and primary melanoma cells, but not in HEMs. Additionally, the survivin promoter exhibited very low activities in major mouse organs including the liver, in vivo. EGP-2 is not active in melanoma; messenger RNA expressions were correlated to promoter activities both in melanoma cell lines and primary cell cultures. Thus, these data suggest that the survivin promoter achieved a 'tumor-on/liver-off' profile, and thus represents a potentially useful tumor-specific promoter with applications for transcriptional targeting of Ad vector-based cancer gene therapy or oncolysis to melanoma.