Toward targeted killing of tumor-specific antigen-producing cancer cells by retrovirus displaying a single chain variable fragment antibody.

Abstract

In establishing an effective therapy for cancer, one of the most important issues to be considered is how to target only cancer cells and to protect the surrounding normal tissues from side effects. For the targeted gene therapy of cancer, we have been developing our strategies according to these two approaches: 1) specific gene delivery to cancer cells via cancer-specific antigens, and 2) specific gene expression in cancer cells by cancer-specific promoters. Here, I focus on the first approach, developing Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)-targeting strategy by retrovirus displaying a chimeric envelope protein with anti-CEA single chain variable fragment (scFv) antibody. Cancer-specific antigens are promising targets for the specific delivery of certain drugs or genes to cancer cells in cancer therapy.