Stem cell beacon
AssigneeUniversity of South Florida
InventorsM. Ian Phillips, Yao Liang Tang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention relates to methods and compositions for selectively directing stem cells to a target tissue within a subject using a system that employs one or more vectors that contain a gene switch/biosensor, a tissue-specific promoter, a gene encoding a stem cell-attracting chemokine, and a gene amplification system. In one embodiment, a stem cell-attracting chemokine is expressed in damaged tissue using a stimulus-responsive vector system. The stimulus can be a physiological stimulus associated with cell injury, such as hypoxia or elevated glucose levels, for example. Expression of the chemokine increases the trafficking of stem cells to the damaged tissue.
Claims15
A composition comprising:
- (a) a first polynucleotide comprising:
- (1) a gene switch/biosensor comprising a nucleic acid sequence encoding a physiological stimulus-sensitive chimeric transactivator, wherein said physiological stimulus-sensitive chimeric transactivator is oxygen-sensitive and comprises a GAL4 DNA-binding, domain (DBD), an oxygen-dependent degradation domain (ODD), and a p65 activation domain (p65 AD), and
- (2) an operatively linked tissue-specific promoter;
- and
- (b) a second polynucleotide comprising a nucleic acid sequence encoding a stem cell-attracting chemokine, wherein said second polynucleotide further comprises a GAL4 upstream activating sequence (UAS) linked to said nucleic acid sequence of said second polynucleotide, and wherein in response to hypoxia, said transactivator binds to the GAL4 UAS, resulting in expression of said nucleic acid sequence encoding said stem cell-attracting chemokine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.