Objective    To transduce the suicide gene driven by prostate specific promotor into androgen independent prostate cancer (AIPC) cells and observe its antitumor effect.     Methods    A fusional fragment of cytosine deaminase (CD) gene driven by rPB-DR(6) promotor was inserted into the retroviral vector pLNCX to reconstruct the retroviral vector pLN-rPB-DR(6)-CD which was packaged by PA317 cells. The supernatant containing recombinant retrovirus was used to infect PC-3 cells and G418 was employed to select resistant clones

PC-3

CD

cells. The antitumor activity of the CD gene on PC-3

CD

cells was observed by adding tretinoin and 5-fluorocytosine into the culture media. Cell growth curve was plotted and growth inhibitory rate was calculated.     Results    The retroviral vector pLN-rPB-DR(6)-CD was confirmed to be successfully reconstructed by enzyme digestion and DNA sequencing. A fragment containing the CD gene was amplified by PCR in the genomic DNA of PC-3

CD

cells. The CD mRNAs were present in PC-3

CD

cells confirmed by RT-PCR. After adding tretinoin and 5-fluorocytosine into the culture media

the PC-3

CD

cells died dramatically and their proliferation was inhibited significantly.     Conclusion    The suicide gene driven by prostate specific promotor can kill the AIPC cells and inhibit their proliferation.