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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Oct 29.
Published in final edited form as: Crit Care Clin. 2011 Jul;27(3):705–718. doi: 10.1016/j.ccc.2011.04.002

Figure 1. Common elements of a gene therapy plasmid.

Figure 1

A typical plasmid is depicted showing control elements and expressed genes. Promoters that express for a short period of time (e.g., the CMViep), a long period of time (e.g., the UbC promoter), or in specific cell types (e.g., the SP-C promoter for expression in AT2 cells or the CC10 promoter for expression in clara cells) are used to drive expression of the gene of interest. In almost all cases, cDNA for the gene to be expressed is used instead of genomic sequence, thus eliminating all introns to make the gene smaller in size and allow for more efficient expression that does not require mRNA splicing and maturation. A DTS can be included downstream of the transgene to aid in general or cell-specific DNA nuclear import, and an antibiotic resistance gene is carried on the plasmid for maintenance and production of the plasmids in bacteria.