New role for HIV: a vehicle for moving genes into cells
Cohen, J.
Science 272(5259): 195
1996
ISSN/ISBN: 0036-8075 PMID: 8602502 Document Number: 458840
Gene therapy researchers have constructed what they hope is a harmless form of the retrovirus known as HIV that can deliver genes to a wide range of cells. So far, no gene therapy treatments have shown convincing clinical benefits, in part because the vectors--the viruses used to deliver genes into target cells--do not work very well. The researchers, led by Didier Trono and Inder Verma of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, report in this issue of Science that HIV--or one of its close relatives--could be a vector that could be directly injected into the patient. To date, the vector most often used in experiments involving humans is murine leukemia virus, a mouse retrovirus that can only infect cells if they are dividing. HIV, like others in the lentivirus family, can infect nondividing cells, however.