Overview of evolving strategies incorporating prostate-specific membrane antigen as target for therapy

Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is a potential target in prostate cancer patients because it is very highly expressed and because it has bee n reported to be upregulated by androgen deprivation. This overview address es the expression of the PSMA gene in terms of the promoter and enhancer an d how that may play a role in gene therapy. We also review PSMA as a target for antibodies for imaging and treatment and the development of a novel hy brid T-cell receptor that combines the specificity of anti-PSMA antibodies with that of T-cell receptor activation when introduced into primary lympho cytes by retroviral-mediated gene transfer. We also discuss our recent find ings on the expression of a PSMA-like gene and how that understanding allow s specific targeting of PSMA.