Title:
Development of foamy virus vectors for somatic gene therapy
Project management at the University of Würzburg:
Participating scientists:
Abstract:
In this project (i) the cis-acting sequences required to transfer a foamy virus vector were characterized; (ii) it was analyzed whether established retroviral vectors can be pseudotyped by foamy virus glycoprotein; (iii) a potential pathogenicity of foamy virus infection in immunodeficient hosts was studied and (iv) it was investigated whether primary liver cells can be transduced by foamy virus vectors. It was found that (i) the packaging sequence of foamy viruses is bipartite; (ii) pseudotyping of vectors derived from murine leukemia virus by foamy virus glycoprotein is possible, but not vice versa; (iii) the infection of nude mice by foamy viruses is lethal and (iv) liver cells are not a good target for the transduction by foamy virus vectors.
Key words:
foamy virus
retrovirus vector
transduction of liver cells
gene therapy
Projekt period: from 05.1997 to 04.2000
Funding institution:
EU
Publications: