Production and characterization of a bicistronic Moloney-based retroviral vector expressing human interleukin 2 and herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase for gene therapy of cancer

Treatment of malignant gliomas with a replicating adenoviral vector expressing herpes simplex virus-thymidine kinase.

We evaluated the interaction between oncolytic, replication-competent adenoviral vectors and the herpes simplex virus-1 thymidine kinase (HSV1-tk) gene/ganciclovir (GCV) suicide system for the treatment of malignant gliomas. We constructed a panel of replication-competent adenoviral vectors in which the luciferase (IG.Ad5E1(+). E3Luc) or HSV1-tk gene (IG.Ad5E1(+).E3TK) replace the M(r) 19,000 g...

Restriction Enzyme Analysis of Thymidine Kinase Gene in Four Iranian Isolates of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1

Herpes Simplex Virus vector-based gene therapy for malignant glioma

Conventional therapies have made little impact on the poor prognosis associated with malignant glioma. Recent advances in the construction of replication-defective Herpes Simplex Virus (HPV)-based vectors have offered an opportunity to explore the therapeutic affects of simultaneous multiple transgene delivery to these tumours. Identification of co-operative molecular targets has enabled the ra...

Adenoviral herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase gene therapy in an orthotopic lung cancer model.

BACKGROUND Although adenovirus-mediated herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSVtk) gene therapy is a potential candidate for a novel effective therapy for lung cancer, previous studies have been performed only in a subcutaneous tumor model employing nude mice. We studied therapeutic potentials in correlation with accurate adenoviral gene transduction efficiency in a more clinically relevant ...

Optimizing prostate cancer suicide gene therapy using herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase active site variants.

The herpes simplex virus (HSV) thymidine kinase gene (tk) forms the basis of a widely used strategy for suicide gene therapy. A library of HSV thymidine kinase enzyme (TK) active site mutants having different affinities for guanosine analog prodrugs was developed. We sought to determine the optimal combination of tk variant and prodrug specifically for prostate cancer gene therapy, using in vit...