COMPOSITIONS AND METHODS FOR IDENTIFYING ANTI-CANCER, ANTI-METASTATIC AND ANTI-STRESS AGENTS

摘要

In alternative embodiments, provided are products of manufacture, such as assays, chimeric nucleic acids and nucleic acid constructs, recombinant cells, and methods, comprising use of beta3-integrin (ITGB3) promoters operatively linked to a reporter, for drug screening, and in particular, screening for agents that inhibit cancer cell survival and metastasis. In alternative embodiments, compositions and methods as provided herein also can be used to identifying novel pathways that lead to acquired resistance, stemness, and anchorage independent growth; and characterizing distinct populations of cancer cells within a tumor microenvironment.

主权项

1. A nucleic acid construct, or a chimeric or recombinant nucleic acid, comprising:
(a) a beta3-integrin (ITGB3) promoter, or a functional subsequence thereof; and (b) a reporter nucleic acid, or a nucleic acid encoding a reporter or a marker protein or compound, wherein optionally the reporter or marker protein or compound is a bioluminescent or a fluorescent protein or compound, or a luciferase or a green fluorescent protein (GFP), and optionally the nucleic acid construct or a chimeric or recombinant nucleic acid further comprises an ITGB3 distal promoter and/or enhancer, or SEQ ID NO:2, or a subsequence of SEQ ID NO:2 (FIG. 5) that can function as an ITGB3 distal promoter and/or enhancer.