Periventricular germinal zones (GZs) of developing and adult brain contain neural stem cells (NSCs), the cellular identities and origins of which are not defined completely. We used tissue culture techniques and transgenic mice expressing herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSV-TK) from the mouse glial fibrillary acid protein (GFAP) promoter to test the hypothesis that certain NSCs express G...

Bladder cancer is the ninth most common malignancy in the world. Successful clinical management remains a challenge. In order To search for novel targeted and efficacious treatment, we sought to investigate anti-tumor activity of BI-TK suicide gene therapy system in a rat model of bladder tumors. We first constructed and tested an anaerobic Bifidobacterium infantis-mediated thymidine kinase (BI...

Direct in vivo tumor-targeting with "suicide" viral vectors is limited by either inefficient gene transfer (i.e., retroviral vectors) or indiscriminate transfer of a conditionally toxic gene to surrounding nonmalignant tissue (i.e., adenoviral vectors). Retrovectors pseudotyped with the vesicular stomatitis virus G protein (VSVG) may serve as a remedy to this conundrum. These retroviral particl...

Administration of donor T cells expressing the herpes simplex–thymidine kinase (HS-tk) with a hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation could allow, if graftversus-host disease (GVHD) was to occur, a selective in vivo depletion of these T cells by the use of ganciclovir (GCV). The study evaluates the feasibility of such an approach. Escalating numbers of donor HS-tk–expressing CD31 gene-mod...

The UL97 protein (pUL97) of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a protein kinase that also phosphorylates ganciclovir (GCV), but its biological function is not yet clear. The M97 protein (pM97) of mouse cytomegalovirus (MCMV) is the homolog of pUL97. First, we studied the consequences of genetic replacement of M97 by UL97. Using the infectious bacterial plasmid clone of the full-length MCMV genome ...

The in vitro differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) to generate specific types of cells is inefficient, and the remaining undifferentiated cells may form teratomas. This raises safety concerns for clinical applications of hiPSC-derived cellular products. To improve the safety of hiPSC, we attempted to site-specifically insert a herpes simplex virus 1 thymidine kinase (H...

BACKGROUND As the number of patients with diffuse coronary artery disease continues to grow, there is renewed interest in alternative methods of perfusing the ischemic myocardium. We tested the feasibility of myocardial retroperfusion via a direct left ventricle-to-great cardiac vein (LV-GCV) conduit to support regional contractility in this setting. METHODS LV-GCV flow was established using ...

A novel therapy for Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positive tumors involves the intentional induction of the lytic form of EBV infection combined with ganciclovir (GCV) treatment. Virally encoded kinases (thymidine kinase and BGLF4) which are expressed only during the lytic form of infection convert GCV (a nucleoside analogue) into its active, cytotoxic form. However, tightly latent EBV infection in ...

BACKGROUND Radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) of idiopathic ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) originating from the basal portion of the left ventricular (LV) summit, which is divided from the apical LV (A-LV) summit by the great cardiac vein (GCV), is challenging. This study investigated the efficacy of RFCA and electrocardiographic and electrophysiological characteristics of these VAs. METH...

A proof-of-concept study is presented using dual gene therapy that employed a small hairpin RNA (shRNA) specific for mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and a herpes simplex virus-thymidine kinase (HSV-TK) gene to inhibit the growth of tumors. Recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vectors containing a mutant TK gene (sc39TK) were transduced into HeLa cells, and the prodrug ganciclovir (GCV...