Patent ID: 7785870

Claim:
A herpes simplex virus vector (HSV vector) that does not replicate in adult normal cells, but specifically replicates and is expressed in proliferating cells expressing calponin, and that is capable of suppressing its replication at a desired time by using the thymidine kinase gene, wherein the HSV vector is a recombinant HSV vector with a DNA fragment comprising: (i) the promoter region of the human calponin gene consisting of the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO.: 3; (ii) an ICP4 gene encoding a transcription factor essential for initiation of a herpes viral replication operably linked downstream the promoter region of the human calponin gene, (iii) an EGFP gene operably linked downstream the ICP4 gene via an internal ribosomal entry site; and (iv) a LacZ gene integrated upstream to the said promoter region of the human calponin gene; wherein the DNA fragment is inserted by homologous recombination into the ribonucleotide reductase gene locus of an HSV vector that comprises an endogenous thymidine kinase gene and lacks functional endogenous ICP4 gene, and wherein the expression of both the LacZ gene and the EGFP gene is used to identify the recombinant HSV vector.