Methods of treating a cancer in a patient are provided. The methods can include obtaining a tumor sample from a patient, detecting whether CCNG1 gene expression is present in the tumor sample, diagnosing the patient with a CCNG1 inhibitor-responsive cancer when the presence of CCNG1 gene expression in the tumor sample is detected, and/or administering an effective amount of a CCNG1 inhibitor to the diagnosed patient. CCNG1 inhibitors can include a viral vector having a binding peptide that is configured to bind one or more signature (SIG) elements of an invading tumor and at least one cytocidal gene. CCNG1 inhibitors including cell penetrating peptides are also provided.

A method of treating brain cancer in an immune-competent human patient by administering ternozolornide to the immune-competent human patient, the improvement comprising administering to said immune-competent human patient a viral vector.

The present application relates, in some aspects, to the development of an assay that uses cell survival and/or cell viability as a phenotypic identifier to positively select for agents that destabilize a protein of interest.

Nucleic acid sequences encoding improved Herpes Simplex Virus Thymidine Kinases are provided, including their use in diagnostic and therapeutic applications. The thymidine kinases may be mutated using conservative mutations, non-conservative mutations, or both. Also provided are gene therapeutic systems, including viral and retroviral particles.

A conditional rescue system generally includes a gene transfer system, a polynucleotide including a nuclease-resistant target coding region, and a coding region encoding a conditionally-lethal polypeptide. The gene transfer system is effective to integrate into host cell DNA. The polynucleotide including the nuclease-resistant target coding region is under transcriptional control of an inducible promoter. The coding region encoding a conditionally-lethal polypeptide is transcriptionally linked to the target coding region.

The present invention relates to methods for treating prostate cancer patients. It is based, at least in part, on the discovery that approximately 90% of men carrying at least one of the following fusion genes: TRMT11-GRIK2, SLC45A2-AMACR, MTOR-TP53BP1, LRRC59-FLJ60017, TMEM135-CCDC67 and CCNH-C5orf30 experienced prostate cancer recurrence, metastases and/or prostate cancer-specific death after radical prostatectomy (each examples of “progressive prostate cancer”), while these outcomes occurred in only 36% of men not carrying any of these fusion genes. It is also based, at least in part, on the discovery that a genome editing technique that specifically targets a fusion gene can induce cell death in a cancer cell that carries the fusion gene.

The invention relates generally to methods of generating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) that do not contain the reprogramming vector. In some embodiments, the invention relates to inducing pluripotency in somatic cells by introducing an episomal vector(s) comprising at least one expression cassette containing reprogramming factors and/or synthetic transcription factors and a suicide gene. In some embodiments, the invention relates to inducing pluripotency in somatic cells by introducing episomal vector(s) comprising expression cassettes containing reprogramming factors and/or synthetic transcription factors and a transcriptionally regulated EBNA-1 gene. In some embodiments, the invention relates to inducing pluripotency in somatic cells by introducing episomal vector(s) comprising expression cassettes containing reprogramming factors and/or synthetic transcription factors and both a suicide gene and a transcriptionally regulated EBNA-1 gene.

Provided herein are methods and compositions for a suicide gene approach comprising an expression vector comprising a cell cycle-dependent promoter driving the expression of a suicide gene. Also provided herein are methods to render proliferative cells sensitive to a prodrug after transplantation but avoids expression of the suicide gene in post-mitotic cells, such as neurons.

A method, system, and apparatus for treating a patient with HIV. A vector can be modified from a thymidine kinase gene. The modified vector is expressed in the presence of tat RNA. The modified vector is then package and delivered to HIV-infected cells. The replication of HIV is inhibited by eliminating infected cells in the presence of Ganciclovir. Modified cells are then selected utilizing transient tat RNA transfection and GFP expression. Vector-modified stem cells are then selected for transplantation back into the patient, thereby producing a normal immune system in the patient when the modified vector remains dormant in the absence of HIV tat.

An object of the invention is to provide a novel pharmaceutical composition. The pharmaceutical composition of the disclosure contains a DNA encoding a suicide gene having at least one intron sequence. The intron sequence has a donor sequence or an acceptor sequence to be used in a tumor cell with abnormal splicing not in a normal cell. In a transcript of the DNA, the suicide gene is expressed when the intron is abnormally spliced and the suicide gene is not expressed when the intron is not abnormally spliced.