ABSTRACT
I. Introduction 172
II. GAL4 Transactivating System 172
III. Tissue-Specific Promoters 176
IV. Strategies to Enhance Transcriptional Activation of Weak,
Tissue-Specific Promoters 177
V. Role of Molecular Imaging in the Noninvasive Monitoring of
Gene Expression In Vivo 181
VI. Gene Therapy Vectors 185
A. Adenoviruses 185
B. Adeno-Associated Virus 187
C. Retroviruses 187
D. Lentiviruses 187
E. Nonviral Vectors 188
VII. Imaging Pulmonary Gene Expression In Vivo 190
VIII. Transgenic Mouse Models 194
IX. Conclusion 196
References 196
I. Introduction
Selective expression of therapeutic genes in tissues of interest is an essential
requirement in gene therapy applications. This is due to the adverse effects of
therapeutic genes on normal cells during therapy. Selective targeting of cells in
patients will lead to increased treatment efficacy and safety. There are several
ways to achieve targeted expression of transgenes in cells. For instance, one
approach involves transcriptional targeting with tissue-specific regulatory
elements and enhancers. These regulatory elements may be induced to restrict
gene expression specifically to the tissue of interest.
