Tumor specific co expression of multiple amirna and transgene for improved cancer gene therapy

Abstract

Targeted gene therapy is an attractive strategy for the treatment of cancer especially for treating unresectable metastasized or therapy refractory tumors However it is hampered by target specificity low efficacy and safety concerns Though the use of tumor specific promoters can provide much needed specificity to target tumor cells the expression levels from these promoters is often suboptimal and hence does not provide the expected therapeutic benefit Also due to genetic heterogenities and phenotypic variations of cancer cells the current methods of cancer gene therapy do not produce desired effect as in these approaches a single oncogene pathway is targeted by either suppressing an over active oncogene or inducing a therapeutic gene newline