title: Overview of the HIV-1 Lentiviral Vector System.
abstract: Replication-defective oncoretroviral vectors have been the most widely used vehicles for gene-transfer studies because of their capacity to efficiently introduce and stably express transgenes in mammalian cells. A limitation of oncoretroviral vectors is that cell division is required for proviral integration into the host genome. By comparison, lentiviruses such as human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) have evolved a nuclear-import machinery that allows them to infect nondividing as well as dividing cells. This unique property has led to the development of lentiviral vectors for gene delivery to a variety of nondividing or slowly dividing cells including neurons and glial cells of the central nervous system and others. This unit is intended to provide an overview of HIV-1 molecular biology and an introduction to successive generations of HIV-1-based lentiviral vectors.
authors.affiliation: American Red Cross, Rockville, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ramezani
authors.forename: Robert G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Hawley
mesh_terms: D002455:Cell Division; D003001:Cloning, Molecular / Q000379:methods*; D003673:Defective Viruses / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D005814:Genes, Viral; D005822:Genetic Vectors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D009928:Organ Specificity; D011533:Proviruses / Q000502:physiology; D014161:Transduction, Genetic; D016662:Virus Integration; D014779:Virus Replication