pDRIVE-GRP78

GRP78 promoter (Ubiquitous, stress-inducible) in pDRIVE expression plasmid

Stress inducible

The glucose-regulated proteins, GRP78 and GRP94, function as molecular chaperones. They are expressed constitutively in most cell types under normal growth conditions and are highly induced in stressed cells.

The genes for GRP78 and GRP94 are coordinately regulated at the transcriptional level under a variety of stress conditions. Inducing factors are cellular environments of low glucose or oxygen and reagents that disrupt the ER function such as calcium ionophores.

The GRP78 and GRP94 promoters are highly conserved and share a common regulatory domain [1]. The GRP78 promoter is known to retain its strong activity in differentiated and undifferentiated tissues whereas GRP94 is mainly effective in differentiated cells [2].

Furthermore, the GRP78 promoter can increase the expression levels of HSV-tk inside tumors resulting in complete eradication of tumor mass, with no recurrence of tumor growth [3].

References:

1. Chang SC. et al. 1989. Glucose-regulated protein (GRP94 and GRP78) genes share common regulatory domains and are coordinately regulated by common trans-acting factors. Mol Cell Biol 9:2153-62.
2. Kim SL. et al. 1990. Expression of the glucose-regulated proteins (GRP94 and GRP78) in differentiated and undifferentiated mouse embryonic cells and the use of the GRP78 promoter as an expression system in embryonic cells. Differentiation 42:153-9.
3. Gazit G. et al. 1999. Use of the glucose starvation-inducible glucose-regulated protein 78 promoter in suicide gene therapy of murine fibrosarcoma. Cancer Res 59: 3100-6.