pca3 dd3 gene has been shown to be sensitive and specific marker for diagnosis and prostate cancer in a patient . the characterization of its promoter , sequence deposited into the genbank ™ data base , opens the way to the specific expression of heterologous sequence in a prostate or prostate - derived cell and more particularly prostate cancer cells and to development of therapies against prostate cancer . the present invention is illustrated in further detail by the following non - limiting examples . genomic clones lambdafix - me3 , - me4 and - ih1 , containing the 5 ′ end of the human pca3 dd3 cdna were obtained previously ( bussemakers , pct / ca98 / 00346 1998 ; and bussemakers et al ., cancer res . 1999a ). lambda phage dna was endonuclease digested and subcloned in plasmid vectors pgem - 3zf (+) or pt 2 . double stranded plasmid dna was isolated by standard procedures , and sequenced using the thermo sequenase cycle sequencing kit ( amersham ) and texas red labeled universal primers . sequencing products were separated and analyzed using the vistra dna sequencer 725 . in fig1 a , a restriction map is shown of the resulting clones pfs28 , pgv61 and pme4 . 6 , containing pca3 dd3 exon 1 and its 5 ′- flanking sequences . the nucleotide sequence of the 5 ′- flanking region was determined ( fig1 b ) and is deposited in the genbank database under genbank accession number af279290 . comparison of the pca3 dd3 5 ′- flanking nucleotide sequence with sequences in the non - redundant nucleotide databases and the eukaryotic promoter database , using blast ( altschul et al ., nucleic acids res . 1997 ), revealed no homology to any gene , c . q . promoter sequences described . identification of potential transcription factor ( tf ) binding sites by the matinspector program , using the transfac 3 . 5 matrices ( quandt et al ., nucleic acids res . 1995 ), revealed no canonical binding sites at consensus positions , i . e . no initiator nor tata boxes could be identified . only a single caat element at a non - consensus position (− 374 to − 378 ) was found . other potential tf binding sites are shown in fig1 b . the structure function relationship of the pca3 dd3 promoter had thus to be dissected using molecular biology methods as shown below . sequences of the oligonucleotides used in the determination of the pca3 dd3 transcription start site the nucleotide sequences of the specific oligonucleotides used in the determination of the pca3 dd3 transcription start site are shown in fig2 ( seq id no : 2 to seq id no : 4 ). bus2 ( seq id no : 2 ) and bus7 ( seq id no : 3 ) sequences are pca3 dd3 specific antisense oligonucleotides used for primer extension analysis . the bus21 ( seq id no : 4 ) sequence is a pca3 dd3 specific oligonucleotide used for rnase protection assay . the isolated human pca3 dd3 cdnas were shown to possess different 5 ′ ends , associated with their different lengths ( bussemakers et al ., cancer res . 1999a ). in order to precisely define the pca3 dd3 transcription start site , primer extension analysis and rnase protection assays , using total rna from human prostate cancer tissue and normal human liver and lung tissue as a negative control , were performed . for the primer extension analysis , pca3 dd3 exon 1 ( bus2 ) and exon 3 ( bus7 )- specific oligonucleotides were used as a primer . the use of the exon 3 - specific primer , bus7 , is validated , since exon 2 is present in only a minority of transcripts (& lt ; 5 %) due to alternative splicing ( bussemakers et al ., cancer res . 1999a ). briefly , total rna of human tissue was isolated using guanidium isothiocyanate by standard procedures . pca3 dd3 - specific antisense oligonucleotides bus2 ( 5 ′- ctctgtatcatcaggtccttcc - 3 ′, position + 120 to + 99 ) and bus7 ( 5 ′- ctggaaatgtgcaaaaacat - 3 ′, position + 420 to + 401 ) were [ gamma - 32 p ] atp end - labeled ( 3000 mci / mmol , amersham ) and annealed with 20 micrograms of rna at 30 ° c . in 30 microliters hybridization buffer ( 40 mm pipes ph 6 . 7 , 1 mm edta , 0 . 5 m nacl , 80 % formamide ). primers were extended with 200 units of superscript ii - mmlv reverse transcriptase ( gibco brl ) in 25 microliters rt buffer ( gibco brl ), supplemented with 0 . 5 mm dntps , 10 mm dtt , 0 . 5 micrograms actinomycin d , and 1 unit / microliter rnase inhibitor , for 1 . 5 hours at 42 ° c . rnase a - treated primer extension products were resolved by 6 % polyacrylamide - urea gel electrophoresis . pca3 dd3 genomic sequence ladders generated with the same oligonucleotide primers were used as size markers . gels were dried and exposed to hyperfilm ( amersham ) using two amplifying screens at − 80 ° c . for approximately three days . for the rnase protection assay , a dna fragment encompassing the presumed transcription start site was used as a probe . a 517 bps sau3ai dna fragment from clone pme4 . 6 was ligated into the bamhi site of m13mp18 . single - stranded m13 dna was isolated , annealed with the pca3 dd3 exon 1 - specific oligonucleotide bus21 ( 5 ′- ccttcccaccatgcagatcttcctggtctccctcggctgcagccacacaa - 3 ′), and extended using [ gamma - 32 p ] datp and klenow dna polymerase . the radiolabeled probe was linearized with hincii and purified from a denaturing 5 % polyacrylamide - urea gel . all reactions were performed according to standard protocols . the probe ( 10 5 cpm ) was annealed overnight with 40 micrograms total rna at 30 ° c . in 30 microliters hybridization buffer ( 40 mm pipes ph 6 . 7 , 1 mm edta , 0 . 5 m nacl , 80 % formamide ). dna - rna hybrids were digested with 300 units s1 nuclease ( amersham ) in 300 microliters s1 buffer ( 0 . 28 m nacl , 0 . 05 m naac ph 4 . 5 , 4 . 5 mm znso 4 , supplemented with 20 micrograms / ml single - stranded herring sperm dna ) for 60 minutes at 30 ° c . or 37 ° c . digestions were stopped by the addition of stop buffer ( 4 m nh 4 ac , 50 mm edta , 50 micrograms / m1 trna ). protected dna fragments were resolved by 6 % polyacrylamide - urea gel electrophoresis . a pca3 dd3 genomic sequence ladder generated with the bus21 primer was used as size marker . gels were dried and exposed to hyperfilm ( amersham ) using two amplifying screens at − 80 ° c . for approximately three days . the results of a representative experiment for the primer extension analysis are shown in fig3 a . two prostate - specific extension products could be identified in fig3 a ( lanes 4 , 5 , 7 , 8 and 9 ). the transcription start site deduced from the longest extension product was designated + 1 , and consequently , the smaller fragment was initiated from an alternative start site at position + 34 . as shown in fig3 b , rnase protection analysis , using s1 nuclease , revealed two prostate - specific s1 - protected fragments ( fig3 b , lanes 1 to 4 ). the most abundant product was initiated from position + 3 with respect to the transcription start site identified by primer extension analysis ( position + 1 ). the minor s1 protected fragment , was initiated from an alternative start site at position + 12 . the identified major and minor transcription start sites are shown above the pca3 dd3 nucleotide sequence in fig4 . in order to demonstrate promoter activity , the pca3 dd3 5 ′- flanking region was cloned upstream of the human growth hormone ( hgh ) reporter gene ( construct pddgh - 1 . 9 , position − 433 to + 62 , 28 to 522 in seq id no : 1 ). briefly , the promoterless plasmid pogh ( nichols institute ) was used for cloning pca3 dd3 promoter fragments into the polylinker upstream of the human growth hormone gene . pca3 dd3 promoter fragments were produced by pcr , using 5 ′ hindiii - tagged and 3 ′ bamhi - tagged primers and normal human genomic dna as a template . subsequently , the fragments were cleaved with hindiii and bamhi and cloned into pogh , using standard procedure . mutant promoter constructs were generated using the “ geneeditor ” in vitro site - directed mutagenesis system ( promega ). since the hgh secretion capacity of different cell lines may vary , for each cell line the activity of the pca3 dd3 - hgh constructs was compared to that of plasmid ptkgh containing the human growth hormone gene driven by the constitutive promoter of the hsv - thymidine kinase gene ( selden et al ., mol . cell . biol . 1986 ). then , these constructs were used in transient transfection of the two following cell lines : pc - 346c , a derivative of the human prostate adenocarcinoma cell lines lncap ( kindly provided by dr . w . van weerden ; dept . of urology , erasmus university rotterdam , the netherlands ) and tsu - pr1 . both cell lines were grown in rpmi 1640 medium , supplemented with 10 % foetal calf serum ( gibco brl ), in an atmosphere of 5 % co 2 and 37 ° c . for transient transfection , lncap cells were seeded at a density of 1 × 10 6 cells per 10 - cm dish two days prior to transfection and tsu - pr1 cells were seeded at a density of 5 × 10 5 cells per 10 - cm dish one day before transfection . for each transfection 3 micrograms of the appropriate pca3 dd3 - hgh construct and 2 . 3 micrograms pch110 ( internal marker ) were complexed with fugene - 6 reagent ( boeringer mannheim ) in serum - free medium for 15 minutes at room temperature . the fugene - 6 / dna complexes were added to the cell cultures , and cells were grown for an additional 72 hours . transfections were performed at least three times in duplica . after transfection , medium was collected and stored at − 20 ° c . until use . human growth hormone secretion in the medium was determined using the two - site fluoroimmunometric delfia hgh assay kit ( wallac oy , turku , finland ), according to the manufacturer &# 39 ; s instructions . hgh values were normalized to the beta - galactosidase activities measured in the corresponding cell extracts . hgh values and relative induction values are expressed as mean and standard error of the mean ( sem ). when pddgh - 1 . 9 was transfected into lncap cells , a human prostate carcinoma cell line expressing pca3 dd3 mrna , weak promoter activity was seen ( fig5 ), i . e . hgh production was about 20 % of the hsv - tk driven hgh production . promoters are known to function unidirectionally . therefore , the pddgh - 1 . 9 promoter sequences were cloned in the reverse orientation upstream of the hgh gene ( pddgh - 2 . 1 , pos . + 62 to − 433 ). this pddgh - 2 . 1 promoter construct was inactive in lncap cells , moreover , the hgh production was below that found in cells transfected with the promoterless p0gh construct . sequences upstream of the 500 - bps pca3 dd3 promoter (− 433 to + 62 ) had no effect on the pca3 dd3 promoter activity ( fig5 , construct pddgh - 1 . 5 , pos . − 1 , 900 to + 62 ). to investigate whether regions within the 500 - bps pca3 dd3 promoter contributed to pca3 dd3 promoter activity , a series of 5 ′ deletion constructs were generated . transfection of the deletion constructs pddgh - 1 . 10 , - 1 . 11 and - 1 . 12 into lncap cells resulted in an increased promoter activity , compared to the activity observed in pddgh - 1 . 9 ( fig5 ). construct pddgh - 1 . 12 ( pos . − 152 to + 62 ) displayed the highest pca3 dd3 promoter activity of all constructs tested . shortening the latter construct led to a decreased promoter activity ( pddgh - 1 . 16 ) and a complete loss of activity in construct pddgh - 1 . 18 ( pos . − 41 to + 62 ). to define the specificity of the observed pca3 dd3 promoter activity , promoter constructs pddgh - 1 . 9 , displaying basal activity , and pddgh - 1 . 12 , displaying maximum activity , were transfected into cell lines of different tissue origin . then , the production of human growth hormone was measured in each cell line . the protocol for these experiments was described in example 4 . the different cell lines used for these experiments were as follow : pc - 346c , a derivative of the human prostate adenocarcinoma cell line lncap ; tsu - pr1 , a human prostate cancer cell line ; sw800 , a human bladder cancer cell line ; ht29 , a human colon carcinoma cell line ; skrc - 7 , a renal cell carcinoma cell line and a431 , a vulval epidermoid cancer cell line . pca3 dd3 promoter activity of pddgh - 1 . 9 was found in lncap cells ( fig6 ), but not in a431 ( vulval carcinoma ), ht - 29 ( colon carcinoma ), skrc - 7 ( renal cell carcinoma ) and sw800 ( bladder carcinoma ) cells . importantly , this promoter construct is also silent in prostate carcinoma cell lines that do not express pca3 dd3 mrna ( tsu - pr1 , fig6 , and pc - 3 , data not shown ). the increased promoter activity of the truncated promoter construct pddgh - 1 . 12 , however , was also observed in the pca3 dd3 - negative cell lines , although the maximum promoter activity was significantly lower than in lncap cells . site directed mutagenesis and effects on pca3 dd3 promoter activity in order to further dissect the pca3 dd3 promoter element and to identify the potential significance of the promoter activity , several base substitution mutants in the reporter constructs pddgh - 1 . 9 and pddgh - 1 . 12 were created . base substitutions were introduced in those motifs that were predicted by the matinspector program , using the transfac 3 . 5 matrices ( quandt et al ., nucleic acids res . 23 : 4878 - 4884 ( 1995 )), with a core similarity of 1 . 00 and a matrix similarity of over 0 . 90 ( see fig1 b ). the positions and nature of the base substitutions are shown in fig7 a . promoter mutants were transiently transfected into lncap cells . then hgh production and promoter activities were measured as described in example 4 . base substitutions in the proximal region of the promoter clearly reduced its activity ( fig7 b ). mutations in the nf - 1 sequence motif ( between − 61 to − 60 ) reduced promoter activity of the 1 . 9 / 60a ( seq id no : 7 ) and 1 . 12 / 60a constructs to 27 % and 18 % respectively , and mutations in the e - box motif ( between − 35 to − 33 ) reduced transcription from reporter constructs 1 . 9 / 60c ( seq id no : 8 ) and 1 . 12 / 60c to 43 % and 67 % respectively . these data show that the proximal region of pca3 dd3 promoter is functionally involved in the initiation of transcription of this gene , corroborating the 5 ′ deletion analysis , shown in fig5 and the significant decrease in promoter activity of the − 89 to + 62 construct ( pddgh - 1 . 16 ) and the silencing of the promoter activity in the − 41 to + 62 construct ( pddgh - 1 . 18 ). as well , these results highlight region − 70 to − 30 ( 391 to 431 of seq id no : 1 ) as harboring sequences having a significant prostate - specific promoter activity . the pca3 dd3 gene was previously shown to be highly overexpressed in the majority of prostatic adenocarcinomas ( bussemakers et al ., cancer res . 59 : 5975 - 5979 ( 1999 )). these data suggest that pca3 dd3 mrna expression is regulated by a unique prostate - cancer - specific transcriptional mechanism . nucleotide sequence analysis did not reveal any obvious promoter elements . no known initiator motif , no tata - box , no caat - box , and no gc - rich regions were found at consensus positions within the pca3 dd3 promoter . in addition , the pca3 dd3 promoter initiates transcription mainly at a single site , but lacks characterized initiator elements . a few tata - less promoters have been described that show the properties of the pca3 dd3 promoter , initiator - less and not gc - rich ( brakebusch et al ., j . biol . chem . 272 : 3674 - 3682 ( 1997 )). in any event , the data herein presented suggest that the pca3 dd3 gene promoter is tissue and cell - type specific and , therefore , is a genuine prostate - cancer - specific promoter . the absolute promoter activities of the pca3 dd3 promoter constructs tested , however , are rather low compared to the hsv - tk promoter activity . this correlates with the low level of endogenous pca3 dd3 mrna expression observed in lncap cells , in contrast to the high pca3 dd3 expression in prostate cancer cells . in conclusion , the present invention shows the cloning and the initial characterization of the pca3 dd3 gene promoter . this promoter could be an interesting tool for therapeutic application . although the present invention has been described hereinabove by way of preferred embodiments thereof , it can be modified without departing from the spirit and nature of the subject invention as defined in the appended claims . all publications , patents and patent applications mentioned in this specification are indicative of the level of skill of those skilled in the art to which this invention pertains , and are herein incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication , patent or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference .