Total thyroidectomy is a common procedure for patients suffering from thyroid cancer.
We have devised a novel gene therapy approach using a thyroglobulin promoter to drive thymidine kinase, which would result in tissue specific cell death in thyroid tissue. The CAT region was cut out of the plasmid using XhoI and EcoRI restriction enzymes. Once phosphorylated, the analogs inhibit DNA replication by chain termination. The PCR product was also placed in a TA vector for easier future amplication and restriction enzyme digest. The mTK gene and the hTg plasmid with enhancer were then ligated, and amplified by maxiprep.