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Minerva Biotecnologica 2007 December;19(4):123-32

Copyright © 2007 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Cellular biosensors for the identification of fetal hemoglobin inducers

Breveglieri G. ², Salvatori F. ¹, Finotti A. ², Bertuzzi I. ², Destro F. ², Falzoni S. ³, Bianchi N. ¹, Borgatti M. ¹, Zuccato C. ¹, Feriotto G. ¹, Breda L. ⁴, Rivella S. ⁴, GambariR. ^{1, 2}

¹ Laboratory for the Development of Pharmacological and Pharmacogenomic Therapy of Thalassemia Biotechnology Centre, Ferrara, Italy 2 ER-GenTech, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy 3 Department of Experimental and Diagnostic Medicine Section of General Pathology University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy 4 Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY, USA

The development of cellular systems for the screening of molecules able to induce the production of fetal or adult hemoglobin in erythroid cells isolated from b-thalassemia patients is very important for the identification of molecules of interest for pharmacological therapy of thalassemia. This article reports the development of a cellular system for the identification of inducers of fetal hemoglobin preferentially acting on the human g-globin gene promoter. To achieve this aim, green and red fluorescence protein genes were cloned under the control of g-globin and b-globin promoters, respectively. The developed K562 clones were tested for the increase of fluorescence after treatment with sodium butyrate and hydroxyurea, two well-known inducers of fetal hemoglobin.