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Using intron splicing trick for preferential gene expression in transduced cells: an approach for suicide gene therapy

Cancer Gene Therapy volume 23, pages 7–12 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Suicide gene therapy is one of the most innovative approaches in which a potential toxic gene is delivered to the targeted cancer cell by different target delivery methods. We constructed a transfer vector to express green fluorescent protein (GFP) in transduced cells but not in packaging cells. We placed gfp under the control of the cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter, which is positioned between the two long-terminal repeats in reverse direction. The intron-2 sequence of the human beta globin gene with two poly-A signals and several stop codons on the antisense strand was placed on the leading strand between the CMV promoter and gfp. For lentiviral production, the HEK293T and line were co-transfected with the PMD2G, psPAX2 and pLentiGFP-Ins2 plasmids. The HEK293T and line were transduced with this virus. PCR was performed for evaluation of intron splicing in transduced cells. The GFP expression was seen in 65% of the cells transduced. The PCR amplification of the genomic DNA of transduced cells confirmed the splicing of intron 2. The strategy is significant to accomplish our goal for preserving the packaging cells from the toxic gene expression during viral assembly and the resultant reduction in viral titration. Also it serves to address several other issues in the gene therapy.

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Acknowledgements

We are deeply grateful to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences deputy of research due to their support (Grant No. 393441). We thank Dr Reza Yousefi for the critical review of this manuscript. This work was supported by a grant (No. 393441) from the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    F Pourzadegan, R Taghizadeh, H Khanahmad, Z Mohammadi & M A Tabatabaiefar

  2. Department of Molecular Medicine, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    L Shariati

  3. Pediatric Inherited Diseases Research Center, Research Institute for Primordial Prevention of Non-communicable Disease, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    H Khanahmad & M A Tabatabaiefar

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  1. F Pourzadegan
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  2. L Shariati
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  4. H Khanahmad
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  6. M A Tabatabaiefar
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Correspondence to H Khanahmad.

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Pourzadegan, F., Shariati, L., Taghizadeh, R. et al. Using intron splicing trick for preferential gene expression in transduced cells: an approach for suicide gene therapy. Cancer Gene Ther 23, 7–12 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/cgt.2015.57

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