Suppression of pancreatic tumor progression by systemic delivery of a pancreatic-cancer-specific promoter driven Bik mutant.

Pancreatic cancer is highly aggressive with extremely poor prognosis. Developing a pancreatic cancer specific promoter (PCSP) is one approach for pancreatic cancer gene therapy. We have modified the promoter of cholecystokinin type A receptor (CCKAR), named CCK/Mpd, which possesses a relatively high activity in pancreatic cancer cells as compared with normal cells. The CCK/Mpd promoter-driven luciferase exhibits a better tumor specific tissue distribution than the CMV promoter-driven luciferase when systemically administered in vivo. Notably, we demonstrate a treatment efficacy by using CCK/Mpd-Bik-DD/liposome in a nude mice xenograft model, suggesting the feasibility of PCSP-based gene therapy in pancreatic cancer treatment.