title: A HIV-2-based self-inactivating vector for enhanced gene transduction.
abstract: The employment of HIV-1-based vectors in clinical trials is controversial mainly due to the lethal nature of the virus. HIV-2 is less pathogenic in nature and therefore is likely to be safer for vector design and production. We developed HIV-2-based self-inactivating vectors in which 520 bp out of 554 bp of the viral U3 was deleted. Interestingly, high titers were obtained only when an exogenous promoter was used to drive expression of viral RNA. It was found that the vectors could target a wide range of mammalian cell types including primary neuronal cells and could yield long term expression. It is also noteworthy that the HIV-2 vectors could be effectively cross-packaged into HIV-1 core, which might provide for enhanced safety by reducing the recombination potential of the system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, Microbiology and Immunology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.
authors.forename: Sayandip
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mukherjee
authors.forename: Hui-Ling Rose
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Annmarie L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Pacchia
authors.forename: Yacov
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ron
authors.forename: Joseph P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Dougherty
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D017353:Gene Deletion; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D016325:HIV Long Terminal Repeat; D015498:HIV-2 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D051381:Rats; D014161:Transduction, Genetic