Advances in AAV-mediated cancer gene therapy
AAV-mediated suicide gene therapy
Suicide gene therapy, also called gene-directed enzyme prodrug therapy (GDEPT) or molecular chemotherapy, is currently the most promising strategy for genetic treatment of different cancers. GDEPT relies on the intratumor delivery of a transgene encoding an enzyme, which then activates a systemically-delivered prodrug that inhibits DNA polymerase and blocks DNA replication in tumor cells. Among the candidate genes, the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase gene/ganciclovir prodrug (HSV-tk/GCV) system is an excellent example of the clinical application of GDEPT (Fig. 2) [58]. Studies have shown that the AAV-mediated HSV-tk/GCV therapeutic system generates strong antitumor efficacy [59] and [60].