Patent Application: US-21230894-A

Abstract:
this invention relates to genetic constructs which comprise an enhancer - promoter region which is responsive to radiation , and at least one structural gene whose expression is controlled by the enhancer - promoter . this invention also relates to methods of destroying , altering , or inactivating cells in target tissue by delivering the genetic constructs to the cells of the tissues and inducing expression of the structural gene or genes in the construct by exposing the tissues to ionizing radiation . this invention is useful for treating patients with cancer , clotting disorders , myocardial infarction , and other diseases for which target tissues can be identified and for which gene expression of the construct within the target tissues can alleviate the disease or disorder .

Description:
this invention relates to methods and compositions of controlling expression of at least one gene by exposure of a construct , including the gene , to ionizing radiation . the genes to be controlled are preferably incorporated within a genetic construct which includes a region which is sensitive to ionizing radiation . a schematic diagram of such a construct is shown in fig1 wherein an enhancer - promoter region 10 of a radiation responsive gene , e . g ., c - jun , drives 16 the expression 12 of a structural gene , e . g ., a reporter - effector gene such as tnf 14 . the product of the structural gene expression is then capable of acting on a cell which has incorporated it , to produce a desired effect on the cell . a more complex genetic construct is shown schematically in fig2 . in fig2 a , a region 20 comprising an enhancer - promoter of a radiation responsive gene , is coupled to , and drives 28 the expression of a dna binding domain 26 , e . g ., of a lac repressor gene , and a gene 24 producing a transcription factor , e . g ., from vp16 . the chimeric protein resulting from the expression of that fusion gene , 22 is capable of binding to a dna sequence 30 illustrated in fig2 b . binding of this sequence by the transcription factor 22 activates 38 a structural gene 36 , e . g ., a reporter - effector gene such as tnf . a &# 34 ; minimal promoter &# 34 ; 32 containing ccaat and the tata boxes , e . g ., from the c - fos oncogene , is placed between the binding sequence 30 and the genes 36 to be expressed . the gene product 34 is capable of acting on a cell which has incorporated the genetic constructs , to produce a desired effect . an example showing details of the multiple gene form of genetic construct is shown in fig2 . this figure is predicated on strong induction of the c - jun gene in various different cell types by ionizing radiation at a transcriptional level . a large piece of 5 &# 39 ; genomic sequence from the jun gene is ligated to an appropriate reporter such as β - galactosidase . such a construct is then transfected into a recipient cell and checked for radiation responsiveness . various truncations of this initial large 5 &# 39 ; piece may be used . methods of incorporating constructs into recipient cells comprise electroporation , lipofection , and viral infection . this latter method is illustrated in fig3 and comprises a sin ( self - inactivating virus ) with two ltr &# 39 ; s 50 , 56 . nestled between the ltr &# 39 ; s is a genetic construct comprising a radiation sensitive element 52 which drives 53 a structural gene region expressed as a gene product 54 . a u3 enhancer deletion is shown at 58 . combinations of tumor necrosis factor α ( tnf - α ), a polypeptide mediator of the cellular immune response with pleiotropic activity , and radiation produce synergistic effects and are useful for clinical cancer therapy . tnf - α acts directly on vascular endothelium to increase the adhesion of leukocytes during the inflammatory process ( bevelacqua , et al ., 1989 ). this in vivo response to tnf - α was suggested to be responsible for hemorrhagic necrosis and regression of transplantable mouse and human tumors ( carswell , 1975 ). tnf - α also has a direct effect on human cancer cell lines in vitro , resulting in cell death and growth inhibition ( sugarman , et al ., 1985 ; old , 1985 ). the cytotoxic effect of tnf - α correlates with free - radical formation , dna fragmentation , and microtubule destruction ( matthews , et al ., 1988 ; rubin , et al ., 1988 ; scanlon , et al ., 1989 ; yamauchi , et al ., 1989 ; matthews , et al ., 1987 ; neale , et al ., 1988 ). cell lines that are resistant to oxidative damage by tnf - α also have elevated free - radical buffering capacity ( zimmerman , et al ., 1989 ; wong , et al ., 1988 ). tnf - α causes hydroxyl radical production in cells sensitive to killing by tnf - α ( matthews , et al ., 1987 ). cell lines sensitive to the oxidative damage produced by tnf - α have diminished radical - buffering capacity after tnf - α is added ( yamauchi , et al ., 1989 ). lower levels of hydroxyl radicals have been measured in cells resistant to tnf - α cytotoxicity when compared with cells sensitive to tnf - α killing ( matthews , et al ., 1987 ). tumor necrosis factor α is increased after treatment with x - rays in certain human sarcoma cells . the increase in tnf - α mrna is accompanied by the increased production of tnf - α protein . the induction of a cytotoxic protein by exposure of cells containing the tnf gene to x - rays was suspected when medium decanted from irradiated cultures of some human sarcoma cell lines was found to be cytotoxic to those cells as well as to other tumor cell lines . the level of tnf - α in the irradiated tumor cultures was elevated over that of nonirradiated cells when analyzed by the elisa technique ( saribon , et al ., 1988 ). subsequent investigations showed that elevated tnf - α protein after irradiation potentiates x - ray killing of cells by an unusual previously undescribed mechanism ( see example 1 ). fig4 illustrates the effects of irradiation on tnf - α gene expression . rna from untreated cells ( control ) and irradiated cells was size - fractionated and hybridized to 32 p - labeled tnf - α cdna ( stsar - 13 ) and pe4 plasmid containing tnf - α cdna ( stsar - 48 ). autoradiograms showed increased expression of tnf - α mrna 3 hr after irradiation in cell line stsar - 13 and at 6 hr in cell line stsar - 48 . 7s rna was hybridized to show the pattern for equally loaded lanes . the conclusion from these results is that there is increased tnf - α gene expression after radiation . as can be seen from these results and from information discussed in example 1 , the tumor necrosis factor α is increases after treatment with x - rays . both mrna and tnf - α proteins were increased . the next question was what the effects of tnf - α and radiation would be on cell killing . fig5 exhibits the influence of tnf - α on radiation lethality of tnf - α - producing human sarcomas and tnf - α - nonproducing human tumor cells . the solid lines indicate the effects of radiation alone , and the dashed lines indicate the effects of both tnf - α and irradiation . representative survival data for cell line stsar - 33 are shown in the graph to the left , a . the lower dashed line represents survival of cells with tnf - α at 1000 units / ml , corrected for a plating efficiency ( pe ) of 30 %. the survival of human epithelial tumor cells ( sq - 20b ) irradiated with tnf - α ( 10 units / ml and 1000 units / ml ) is shown in the middle graph , b . survival data for sq - 20b show an additive effect of tnf - α ( 1000 units / ml ). survivals with tnf - α are corrected for 85 % killing with tnf - α alone . radiation survival data for hnscc - 68 is shown in the graph to the right , c . a nonlethal dose of tnf - α ( 10 units / ml ) was added 24 hr before irradiation . although dna - damaging agents other than ionizing radiation have been observed to induce expression of variety of prokaryotic and mammalian genes , the tnf - α gene is the first mammalian gene found to have increased expression after exposure to ionizing radiation . this gene is not categorized as a dna repair gene . another embodiment of a genetic construct derives from the c - jun protooncogene and related genes . ionizing radiation regulates expression of the c - jun protooncogene , and also of related genes c - fos and jun - β . the protein product of c - jun contains a dna binding region that is shared by members of a family of transcription factors . expression level after radiation is dose dependent . the c - jun gene encodes a component of the ap - 1 protein complex and is important in early signaling events involved in various cellular functions . ap - 1 , the product of the protooncogene c - jun recognizes and binds to specific dna sequences and stimulates transcription of genes responsive to certain growth factors and phorbol esters ( bohmann , et al ., 1987 ; angel , et al ., 1988 ). the product of the c - jun protooncogene contains a highly conserved dna binding domain shared by a family of mammalian transcription factors including jun - β , jun - d , c - fos , fos - β , fra - 1 and the yeast gcn4 protein . in addition to regulating expression of the c - jun gene , c - jun transcripts are degraded posttranscriptionally by a labile protein in irradiated cells . posttranscriptional regulation of the gene &# 39 ; s expression is described in sherman , et al ., 1990 . contrary to what would be expected based on previous dna damage and killing rates for other agents , decreasing the dose rate , for example , from 14 . 3 gy / min to 0 . 67 gy / min . was associated with increased induction of c - jun transcripts . fig6 . effects of ionizing radiation on c - jun rna levels in human hl - 60 cells . ( a ) northern blot analysis of total cellular rna levels was performed in hl - 60 cells after treatment with 20 gy of ionizing radiation ( xrt ). hybridization was performed using a 32 p - labeled c - jun or actin dna probe . ( b ) hl - 60 cells were treated with the indicated doses of ionizing radiation . rna was isolated after 3 hours and hybridizations were performed using 32 p - labeled c - jun or β - actin dna probes . the column labelled hl - 60 represents rna from untreated cells . maximum c - jun mrna levels were detectable after 50 gy of ionizing radiation ( fig6 b ). similar kinetics of c - jun induction were observed in irradiated human u - 937 monocytic leukemia cells ( fig7 a ) and in normal human ag - 1522 diploid fibroblasts ( fig7 b ). treatment of ag - 1522 cells with ionizing radiation was also associated with the appearance of a minor 3 . 2 - kb c - jun transcript . to determine the mechanisms responsible for regulation of c - jun gene expression by ionizing radiation , run - on transcriptional assays were performed in isolated nuclei . the actin gene was constitutively transcribed in untreated hl - 60 cells as a positive control ( fig8 ). negative control was provided by the β - globin gene transcript . as shown in fig8 a low level of c - jun transcription was detectable in hl - 60 untreated by radiation . dramatic increased transcription ( 7 . 2 fold ) occurred after exposure to ionizing radiation . the conclusion from this study was that ionizing radiation induced c - jun expression , at least in part by a transcriptional mechanism . fig9 illustrates the effects of cycloheximide on c - jun mrna levels in ionizing radiation - treated hl - 60 cells . hl - 60 cells were treated with 20 gy of ionizing radiation ( xrt ) and / or 5 μg of cycloheximide ( chx ) per ml . total cellular rna ( 20 μg per lane ) was isolated after 1 , 3 and 6 h and analyzed by hybridization to the 32 p - labeled c - jun or actin probe . the columns headed xrt shows expression of mrna after 20 gy radiation exposure of the cells . in the columns chx , cycloheximide has been added . the additive effects of chx and chx / xrt are a 3 . 6 fold increased expression compared to xrt alone . fig1 . effects of ionizing radiation on c - fos and jun - b mrna levels in hl - 60 cells . ( a ) hl - 60 cells were treated with varying doses of ionizing radiation ( xrt ) or 32 nm 12 - o - tetradecanoylphorbol 13 - acetate ( tpa ; positive control ) for 3 h . total cellular rna ( 20 μg ) was hybridized to the 32 p - labeled c - fos probe . ( b ) hl - 60 cells were treated with 20 gy of ionizing radiation . total cellular rna ( 20 μg per lane ) was isolated at the indicated times and analyzed by hybridization to the 32 p - labeled jun - b probe . fig1 . effects of dose rate on the induction of c - jun expression by ionizing radiation . hl - 60 cells were treated with 10 or 20 gy of ionizing radiation at the indicated dose rates . after 3 h , total cellular rna ( 20 μg ) was isolated and hybridized to the 32 p - labelled c - jun probe . targeting tissues for incorporation of a genetic construct responsive to ionizing radiation depending on the application in question , the recipient cells are targeted in various ways . in an exemplary embodiment , lak cells which tend to home in on the tumor site in question with some degree of preference though as is well known , they will also distribute themselves in the body in other locations , may be used to target tumors . indeed , one of the most important advantages of the radiation inducible system is that only those lak cells , which are in the radiation field will be activated and will have their exogenously introduced lymphokine genes activated . thus , for the case of lak cells , there is no particular need for any further targeting . in other applications , the appropriate cells in question have had appropriate genes from monoclonal antibodies introduced in them or appropriate antibodies expressed on their cell surface by other means such as by cell fusion . these monoclonal antibodies , for example , are targeted towards specific cells in the body and thus allow the recipient cells to home in on that particular region so that then radiation could be used for the activation of the appropriate toxins within them . this enables local delivery of the &# 34 ; drug ,&# 34 ; wherein the &# 34 ; drug &# 34 ; is defined as the expression product of the genes within the radiation responsive genetic construct . illustrative embodiments of types of radiation inducible constructs and their applications are presented in table 1 and example 4 . table 1__________________________________________________________________________illustrative embodiments of types ofradiation inducible genetic constructs and their usesaction of expression products example of structural applications to diseasesof genes in the construct genes used in the construct conditions , and tissues__________________________________________________________________________kill tumor cells toxins solid & amp ; hematologic tnf malignancies growth factors ( il - 1 - 6 pdgf , fgf ) protect normal tissues from lymphokines gcsf , cmcsf solid & amp ; hematologicradiation and other cytotoxins erythropoietin malignancies , during concer therapy aplastic anemicinhibit metastasis nm23 cancer metastasistumor suppressor gene products rb p53 prevention of malignancy following standard radio - therapy and chemotherapyradiosensitization tnf solid & amp ; hematologicchemosensitization malignancies ( enhance routine treatment effects ) correct defects in factor 8 clotting disordersclotting factorsintroduce anticlotting factors streptokinase myocardial infarction , urokinase cns thrombosis , pheripheral thrombosiscorrect defects characterizing normal hemoglobin sickle cell anemiahemoglobinopathycorrect deficiencies leading to nerve growth factor alzheimer &# 39 ; s diseaseneurodegenerative diseaseprovide treatment component for insulin diabetesdiabetesdisease of dna repair abnormalities ercc - 1 , xrcc - 1 ataxia telangiectasia xeroderma pigmentosum__________________________________________________________________________ increased tumor necrosis factor α mrna after cellular exposure to ionizing radiation to investigate tnf - α protein production after x - irradiation , the levels of tnf - α in the medium of human tumor cell lines and fibroblasts were quantified by the elisa technique ( saribon , et al ., 1988 ) before and after exposure to 500 - cgy x - rays ( table 1 ). five of 13 human bone and soft tissue sarcoma cell lines ( stsar - 5 , - 13 , - 33 , - 43 , and - 48 ) released tnf - α into the medium after irradiation , whereas tnf - α levels were not elevated in supernatant from normal human fibroblast cell lines ( gm - 1522 and nhf - 235 ) and four human epithelial tumor cell lines ( hn - scc - 68 , scc - 61 , scc - 25 , and sq - 20b ) after exposure to radiation . the assay accurately measures tnf - α levels between 0 . 1 and 2 . 0 units per ml ( 2 . 3 × 10 6 units / mg ) ( saribon , et al ., 1988 ). tumor cell line stsar - 13 produced undetectable amounts of tnf - α before x - irradiation and 0 . 35 units / ml after x - ray exposure . cell lines stsar - 5 and - 33 responded to x - irradiation with increases in tnf - α concentrations of & gt ; 5 - to 10 - fold ; however quantities above 2 units / ml exceeded the range of the assay ( saribon , et al ., 1988 ). cell lines stsar - 43 and - 48 demonstrated increases in tnf - α of 1 . 5 - to 3 - fold ( table 1 ). tnf - α protein in the medium was first elevated at 20 hr after x - ray treatment , reached maximal levels at 3 days , and remained elevated beyond 5 days . furthermore , supernatant from irradiated , but not control stsar - 33 , was cytotoxic to tnf - α - sensitive cell line sq - 20b . table 2______________________________________production of tnf - a in human sarcoma cell lines tnf - α level , units / ml , cell line origin control x - ray______________________________________stsar - 5 mfh 0 . 4 & gt ; 2 . 0stsar - 13 liposarcoma 0 . 0 0 . 34stsar - 33 ewing sarcoma 0 . 17 & gt ; 2 . 0stsar - 43 osteosarcoma 0 . 41 1 . 3stsar - 48 neurofibrosarcoma 0 . 28 0 . 43______________________________________ tnf - α levels were measured in medium from confluent cell cultures ( control ) and in irradiated confluent cells ( xray ). tnfα levels increased as measured by the elisa technique . mfh , malignant fibrous histiocytoma . increased levels of tnf - α mrna were detected in the tnf - α - producing sarcoma cell lines after irradiation relative to unirradiated controls ( fig4 ). for example , tnf - α transcripts were present in unirradiated stsar - 13 and - 48 cell lines . tnf - α mrna levels in cell line stsar - 13 increased by 2 . 5 - fold as measured by densitometry 3 hr after exposure to 500 cgy and then declined to baseline levels by 6 hr ( fig4 ). these transcripts increased at 6 hr after irradiation in cell line stsar - 48 , thus indicating some heterogeneity between cell lines in terms of the kinetics of tng - α gene expression ( fig4 ). in contrast , irradiation had no detectable effect on 7s rna levels ( fig4 ) or expression of the polymerase β gene . to investigate the influence of tnf - α on radiation - induced cytotoxicity in tnf - α - producing cell lines , recombinant human tnf - α was added to cultures before irradiation ( fig5 ). recombinant human tnf - α ( 1000 units / ml ) ( 2 . 3 × 10 6 units / mg ) was cytotoxic to four of five tnf - α - producing sarcomas ( stsar - 5 , - 13 , - 33 , and - 43 ). the plating efficiency ( pe ) was reduced by 60 - 90 % at 1000 units / ml in these lines . radiation - survival analysis of cell line stsar - 33 was performed with tnf - α ( 10 units / ml ). the radiosensitivity ( d 0 ), defined as the reciprocal of the terminal slope of the survival curves was 80 . 4 cgy for cell line stsar - 33 . when tnf - α was added 20 hr before irradiation , the d 0 was 60 . 4 cgy . surviving fractions were corrected for the reduced pe with tnf - α . thus , the interaction between tnf - α and radiation in stsar - 33 cells was synergistic ( dewey , 1989 ). sublethal concentrations of tnf - α ( 10 units / ml ) enhanced killing by radiation in cell line stsar - 33 , suggesting a radiosensitizing effect of tnf - α . the surviving fraction of cell line stsar - 5 at 100 - 700 cgy was lower than expected by the independent killing of tnf - α and x - rays , although the d 0 values were similar . thus , the interaction between tnf - α and radiation is additive ( dewey , 1979 ) in stsar - 5 cells . cell lines stsar - 13 and stsar - 43 were independently killed with x - rays and tnf - α , and no interaction was observed . to determine the possible interactions between tnf - α and x - rays in non - tnf - α producing cells , human epithelial tumor cells ( sq - 20b and hnscc - 68 ) were irradiated 20 hr after tnf - α was added . these cell lines do not product tnf - α in response to ionizing radiation . tnf - α ( 1000 units / ml ) was cytotoxic to sq - 20b and scc - 61 cells , reducing the pe by 60 - 80 %. the radiation survival of sq - 20b cells with and without tnf - α is shown in fig5 . the d 0 for cell line sq - 20b is 239 cgy . with tnf - α ( 1000 units / ml ) added 24 hr before x - rays , the d 0 was 130 . 4 cgy . therefore , a synergistic interaction ( dewey , 1979 ) between tnf - α and x - rays was demonstrated in this cell line . tnf - α added after irradiation did not enhance cell killing by radiation in cell lines sq - 20b . nonlethal concentrations of tnf - α ( 10 units / ml ) resulted in enhanced radiation killing in cell line hnscc - 68 ( fig5 ), providing evidence that tnf - α may sensitize some epithelial as well as mesenchymal tumor cell lines to radiation . cell lines . methods of establishment of human sarcoma and epithelial cell lines have been described ( weichselbaum , et al ., 1986 ; 1988 ). culture medium for epithelial tumor cells was 72 . 5 % dulbecco &# 39 ; s modified eagle &# 39 ; s medium / 22 . 5 % ham &# 39 ; s nutrient mixture f - 12 [ dmem / f - 12 ( 3 : 1 )] 5 % fetal bovine serum ( fbs ), transferrin at 5 μg / ml / 10 - 10 m cholera toxin / 1 . 8 × 10 - 4 m adenine , hydrocortisone at 0 . 4 μg / ml / 2 × 10 - 11 m triodo - l - thyronine / penicillin at 100 units / ml / streptomycin at 100 μg / ml . culture medium for sarcoma cells was dmem / f - 12 ( 3 : 1 )/ 20 % fbs , penicillin at 100 units / ml / streptomycin at 100 μg / ml . tnf - α protein assay . human sarcoma cells were cultured as described above and grown to confluence . the medium was analyzed for tnf - α 3 days after feeding and again 1 - 3 days after irradiation . thirteen established human sarcoma cell lines were irradiated with 500 - centigray ( cgy ) x - rays with a 250 - kv maxitron generator ( weichselbaum , et al ., 1988 ). tnf - α was measured by elisa with two monoclonal antibodies that had distinct epitopes for tnf - α protein ( saribon , et al ., 1988 ); the assay detects tnf - α from 0 . 1 to 2 . 0 units / ml . rna isolation and northern ( rna ) blot analysis . total cellular rna was isolated from cells by using the guanidine thiocyanate - lithium chloride method ( cathala , et al ., 1983 ). rna was size - fractionated by formaldehyde - 1 % agarose gel electrophoresis , transferred to nylon membranes ( genescreenplus , new england nuclear ), hybridized as previously described to the 1 . 7 - kilobase ( kb ) bamhi fragment of the pe4 plasmid containing tnf - α cdna ( sariban , et al ., 1988 ; wang , et al ., 1985 ), and autoradiographed for 16 days at - 85 ° c . with intensifying screens . northern blots were also hybridized to 7s rrna and β - polymerase plasmids as described ( fornace , et al ., 1989 ). ethidium bromide staining revealed equal amounts of rna applied to each lane . rna blot hybridization of tnf - α was analyzed after cellular irradiation with 500 cgy . cells were washed with cold phosphate - buffered saline and placed in ice at each time interval . rna was isolated at 3 , 6 , and 12 hr after irradiation . treatment of cells with x - irradiation and tnf - α . exponentially growing cells were irradiated by using a 250 - kv x - ray generator . the colony - forming assay was used to determine cell survival ( weichselbaum , et al ., 1988 ). the multitarget model survival curves were fit to a single - hit multitarget model [ s = 1 -(- e - d | d0 ) n ]. concentrations of recombinant human tnf - α ( 10 units / ml ) ( 2 : 3 × 10 6 units / mg ) and ( 1000 units / ml ) ( asahi chemical , new york ) were added 24 hr before irradiation . method used to show increased c - jun expression after exposure to ionizing radiation cell culture . human hl - 60 promyclocytic leukemia cells , u - 937 monocytic leukemia cells ( both from american type culture collection ), and ag - 1522 diploid foreskin fibroblasts ( national institute of aging cell repository , camden , n . j .) were grown in standard fashion . cells were irradiated using either philips rt 250 accelerator at 250 kv , 14 ma equipped with a 0 . 35 - mm cu filter or a gammacell 1000 ( atomic energy of canada , ottawa ) with a 137 cs source emitting at a fixed dose rate of 14 . 3 gy / min as determined by dosimetry . control cells were exposed to the same conditions but not irradiated . northern blot analysis . total cellular rna was isolated as described ( sherman , et al ., 1990 ). rna ( 20 μg per lane ) was separated in an agarose / formaldehyde gel , transferred to a nitrocellulose filter , and hybridized to the following 32 p - labeled dna probes : ( i ) the 1 . 8 - kilobase ( kb ) bamhi / ecori c - jun cdna ( hattari , et al ., 1988 ); ( ii ) the 0 . 91 - kb sca i / nco i c - fos dna consisting of exons 3 and 4 ( van straaten , et al ., 1983 ); ( iii ) the 1 . 8 - kb ecori jun - b cdna isolated from the p465 . 20 plasmid ( ryder , et al ., 1988 ); and ( iv ) the 2 . 0 - kb psti β - actin cdna purified from pa1 ( cleveland , et al ., 1980 ). the autoradiograms were scanned using an lkb ultroscan xl laser densitometer and analyzed using the lkb gelscan xl software package . the intensity of c - jun hybridization was normalized against β - actin expression . run - on transcriptional analysis . hl - 60 cells were treated with ionizing radiation and nuclei were isolated after 3 hours . newly elongated 32 p - labeled rna transcripts were hybridized to plasmid dnas containing various cloned inserts after digestion with restriction endonulceases as follows : ( i ) the 2 . 0 - kb pst i fragment of the chicken β - actin pal plasmid ( positive control ); ( ii ) the 1 . 1 - kb bamhi insert of the human β - globin gene ( negative control , ref . 34 ); and ( iii ) the 1 . 8 - kb bamhi / ecori fragment of the human c - jun cdna from the pbluescript sk (+) plasmid . the digested dna was run in a 1 % agarose gel and transferred to nitrocellulose filters by the method of southern . hybridization was performed with 10 7 cpm of 32 p - labeled rna per ml of hybridization buffer for 72 h at 42 ° c . autoradiography was performed for 3 days and the autoradiograms were scanned as already described . there was increased mrna expression for different classes of immediate early response to radiation genes ( jun , egr1 ) within 0 . 5 to 3 hours following cellular x - irradiation . preincubation with cycloheximide was associated with superinduction of jun and egr1 in x - irradiated cells . inhibition of protein kinase c ( pkc ) activity by prolonged stimulation with tpa or the protein kinase inhibitor h7 prior to irradiation attenuated the increase in egr1 and jun transcripts . these data implicated egr1 and jun as signal transducers during the cellular response to radiation injury and suggested that this effect is mediated in part by a protein kinase c ( pkc ) dependent pathway . jun homodimers and jun / fos heterodimers regulate transcription by binding to ap1 sites in certain promoter regions ( curran and franza , 1988 ). the jun and fos genes are induced following x - ray exposure in human myeloid leukemia cells indicating that nuclear signal transducers participate in the cellular response to ionizing radiation . egr1 ( also known as zif / 268 , ngfi - 1 , krox - 24 , tis - 8 ) ( christy , et al ., 1988 ; milbrant , 1987 ; lemaire , et al ., 1988 ; lim , et al ., 1987 ) encodes a nuclear phosphoprotein with a cys 2 - his 2 zinc - finger motif which is partially homologous to the corresponding domain in the wilms &# 39 ; tumor susceptibility gene ( gessler , 1990 ). the egr1 protein binds with high affinity to the dna sequence cgcccccgc in a zinc - dependent manner ( christy and nathans , 1989 ; cao , 1990 ). egr1 represents an immediate early gene which is induced during tissue injury and participates in signal transduction during cellular proliferation and differentiation . the egr1 and jun genes are rapidly and transiently expressed in the absence of de novo protein synthesis after ionizing radiation exposure . egr1 and jun are most likely involved in signal transduction following x - irradiation . down regulation of pkc by tpa and h7 is associated with attenuation of egr1 and jun gene induction by ionizing radiation , implicating activation of pkc and subsequent induction of the egr1 and jun genes as signaling events which initiate the mammalian cell phenotypic response to ionizing radiation injury . control rna from unirradiated cells demonstrated low but detectable levels of egr1 and jun transcripts . in contrast , egr1 expression increased in a dose dependent manner in irradiated cells . levels were low but detectable after 3 gy and increased in a dose dependent manner following 10 and 20 gy . twenty gy was used in experiments examining the time course of gene expression so that transcripts were easily detectable . cells remained viable as determined by trypan dye exclusion during this time course . a time dependent increase in egr1 and jun mrna levels was observed . sq - 20b cells demonstrated coordinate increases in egr1 and jun expression by 30 minutes after irradiation that declined to baseline within 3 hours . in contrast , egr1 transcript levels were increased over basal at 3 hours while jun was increased at one hour and returned to basal at 3 hours in ag1522 . jun levels were increased at 6 hours in 293 cells while egr1 was increased at 3 hours and returned to basal levels by 6 hours . to determine whether egr1 and jun participated as immediate early genes after x - irradiation , the effects of protein synthesis inhibition by chi were studied in cell lines 293 and sq - 20b after x - ray exposure . chi treatment alone resulted in a low but detectable increase in egr1 and jun transcripts normalized to 7s . in the absence of chi , the level of egr1 and jun expression returned to baseline . in contrast , sq - 20b cells pretreated with chi demonstrated persistent elevation of egr1 at 3 hours and 293 cells demonstrated persistent elevation of jun mrna at 6 hours after irradiation thus indicating superinduction of these transcripts . mrna levels of transcription factors egr1 and jun increased following ionizing radiation exposure in a time and dose dependent manner . the potential importance of the induction of egr1 and jun by ionizing radiation is illustrated by the recent finding that x - ray induction of the pdgf alpha chain stimulates proliferation of vascular endothelial cells ( witte , et al ., 1989 ). pdgf has ap - 1 and egr1 binding domains while tnf has elements similar to ap - 1 and egr1 target sequences ( rorsman , et al ., 1989 ; economou , et al ., 1989 ). x - ray induction of pdgf and tnf appears to be regulated by egr1 and jun . cell line sq - 20b was pretreated with 1 μm tpa for 40 hours to down regulate pkc and then stimulated with tpa , serum , or x - ray ( 20 gy ). controls included x - ray without tpa pretreatment , tpa ( 50 nm ) without tpa pretreatment and untreated cells . rna was isolated after one hour and hybridized to egr1 . sq - 20b cells were preincubated with 100 μm h7 ( 1 -( 5 - isoquinolinylsulfonyl )- 2 - methyl piperazine ) or 100 μm ha1004 ( n -[ 2 - methyl - amino ] ethyl )- 5 - isoquinolinesulfonamide ) seikagaku america , inc ., st . petersberg , fla .) for 30 minutes or tpa pretreatment ( 1 μm ) for 40 hours and followed by exposure to 20 gy x - irradiation . rna was extracted one hour after irradiation . positive control cells treated under the same conditions but in the absence of inhibitor also received 20 gy , while negative control cells received neither h7 nor x - ray . rna was extracted at one hour after 20 gy without inhibitor . northern blots were hybridized to egr1 or 7s . 293 cells pretreated with the above inhibitors were irradiated , rna was extracted after 3 hours and the northern blot was hybridized to jun and 7s probes . protocol for treatment of head and neck cancer with x - ray induced tnf and therapeutic x - rays for treatment of patients with head and neck cancer , the following steps are followed : 1 . prepare a genetic construct according to the general scheme illustrated in fig1 or 2 . this construct comprises ap - 1 as the element which is responsive to x - rays , coupled to a sequence of dna to which the lac repressor binds , and to the gene for the tumor necrosis factor . this construct is designated &# 34 ; construct a &# 34 ; for purposes of this example . 2 . &# 34 ; construct a &# 34 ; is put into a retrovirus that is self - inactivating ( see fig3 ). 3 . lymphokine activated killer ( lak ) cells are infected with the retrovirus bearing &# 34 ; construct a .&# 34 ; the cells are to be directed against the malignant cells in the head and neck . 4 . the lymphocytes are infused into the patient to be treated . the references listed below are incorporated herein by reference to the extent that they supplement , explain , provide a background for , or teach methodology , techniques , and / or compositions employed herein . reference 1 . andrews , g . k ., harding , m . a ., calvert , j . p . and adamson , e . d . 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