Ad-BSP-TK

Ad-BSP-TK is a **replication-defective recombinant adenoviral vector** engineered as a gene therapy tool. The E1 gene of the adenovirus was deleted and replaced by the **herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (TK) gene**, with expression driven by the human bone sialoprotein (BSP) promoter for tissue-specificity. This construct does not replicate in mammalian cells and is inactive unless a prodrug, typically ganciclovir, is administered, which then leads to targeted cell death in transduced cells expressing TK. Ad-BSP-TK is primarily used as a negative control vector (dummy virus) in studies targeting **bone-metastatic and androgen-independent prostate cancer** cells, but serves as a prototypical gene therapy vector with applications for tissue-specific cytotoxic ablation in preclinical cancer models[1].