pDRIVE-PSA

Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) promoter in pDRIVE expression plasmid

Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is a serine protease primarily synthesized by both normal prostate epithelium and the vast majority of prostate cancers. PSA expression is mainly induced by androgens at the transcriptional level via the androgen receptor (AR).

The AR modulates transcription through its interaction with its consensus DNA binding site, GGTACAnnnTGTT/CCT, termed the androgen response element (ARE) [1].

The core PSA promoter region exhibits low activity and specificity, but the inclusion of the PSA enhancer sequence which contains a putative ARE increases expression, specifically in PSA-positive cells. The expression can be further increased when induced with androgens such as dihydrotestosterone [2].

References:

1. Schuur ER. et al. 1996. Prostate-specific antigen expression is regulated by an upstream enhancer. JBC. 271(12):7043-7051.
2. Latham JP. et al. 2000. Prostate-specific antigen promoter/enhancer driven gene therapy for prostate cancer:  construction and testing of a tissue-specific adenovirus vector. Cancer Res. 60(2):334-41.