Targeted silencing of SOX2 by an artificial transcription factor showed antitumor effect in lung and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

ABSTRACT: SOX2 is a transcription factor essential for early mammalian development and for the maintenance of stem cells. Recently, SOX2 was identified as a lineage specific oncogene, recurrently amplified and activated in lung and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). In this study, we have developed a zinc finger-based artificial transcription factor (ATF) to selectively suppress SOX2 expression in cancer cells and termed the system ATF/SOX2. We engineered the ATF using six zinc finger arrays designed to target a 19 bp site in the SOX2 distal promoter and a KOX transcriptional repressor domain. A recombinant adenoviral vector Ad-ATF/SOX2 that expresses ATF/SOX2 suppressed SOX2 at the mRNA and protein levels in lung and esophageal SCC cells expressing S

SUBMITTER: Yokota E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5732711 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature