The 5'-flanking region of human CD24 gene has cell-type-specific promoter activity in small-cell lung cancer.

The human surface antigen CD24 is over-expressed in small-cell lung cancer. Here we describe the isolation, sequencing and functional characterization of the 5'-flanking region of the human CD24 gene. A sequence (accession number: Y14692) of 3.4 kb regulates the activity of a luciferase reporter gene in CD24-expressing small-cell-lung-cancer cell lines up to 1.6-fold more than the control SV40 promoter and enhancer. In contrast, little or no luciferase activity was detected in 4 non-small-cell-lung-cancer cell lines. A deletion fragment of 269 bp had maximal activity in small-cell-lung-cancer cell lines (15- to 20-fold higher than control), while activity remained 2- to 10-fold below control in non-small-cell-lung-cancer cell lines. We conclude that the CD24 promoter has a strong and cell-type-specific activity, and propose its exploitation to drive the expression of therapeutic genes in small-cell lung cancer.