Herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase gene (HSVtk) transand in vivo upon treatment with GCV, but the overall effect fer together with treatment with the prodrug ganciclovir in vivo appeared to be suboptimal. The relatively low sensi-(GCV) represents the most commonly used suicide gene tivity of the medulloblastoma cells to viral infection and a approach for the gene therapy of human central nervous limited bystander effect, coupled with a low expression of system malignancies. Despite encouraging results connexin-43 protein, might partially explain these results. reported in clinical trials conducted in adults, very little is Whether this is a peculiarity of the cell line studied or a known about the feasibility of this approach for the treatgeneral characteristic of medulloblastoma remains to be ment of CNS tumors of childhood. We studied the effects determined. These findings should be taken into account of the HSVtk/GCV system on human medulloblastoma for the future planning of gene therapy trials for human cells in vitro and in vivo. The transfer of tk gene to medullomedulloblastoma. blastoma cells was capable of mediating cell suicide in vitro

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