Promoter-Based Theranostics for Prostate Cancer

This project leverages cancer-specific promoters for molecular-genetic endoradiotherapy and in the development of a universal blood test for cancer. The idea is to have the progression-elevated gene 3 promoter PEG-Prom andor the astrocyte-elevated gene 1 promoter AEG-Prom serve to drive, in a cancer-specific manner, production of a thymidine kinase that can phosphorylate radiotherapeutic nucleosides, as well as drive -hCG, which can be detected using a commercial urine pregnancy test. The technology is based on our previously reported promoter-based cancer-specific imaging. The innovations of the project lie in its simplicity, use of non-viral vectors, systemic delivery and that it is a generalizable, platform technology.