Narrowing the field: cancer-specific promoters for mitochondrially-targeted p53-BH3 fusion gene therapy in ovarian cancer.

Cancer-specific promoters hTC, - 279/+ 5, and Brms1 all display promise in driving p53-Bad* gene therapy for treatment of ovarian cancer and should be moved forward into in vivo studies. -279/+ 5 displays lower expression levels in fewer cells, but greater cancer specificity, rendering it most useful for gene therapeutics with high toxicity to normal cells. hTC and Brms1 show higher transfection and expression levels with some cancer specificity, making them ideal for lowering toxicity in order to increase dose without as much of a reduction in the number of cancer cells expressing the gene construct. Having a variety of promoters available means that patient genetic testing can aid in choosing a promoter, thereby increasing cancer-specificity and giving patients with ovarian cancer a greater chance at survival.