The invention is based on the discovery that one can create a drug-regulated gene regulation system by creating a fusion polypeptide or chimera that includes three portions: a zinc finger (ZF) protein that recognizes and binds to a nucleic acid recognition sequence in the vicinity of a promoter of the target gene, (ii) a dimerization domain of a tetracycline repressor, which contains a drug-dependent switch, and (iii) an accessory domain to alter the expression of the target gene (such as an activation or repression domain). This chimera is administered to, or expressed in, a cell harboring the target gene to be regulated.