Foamy Virus Biology and Its Application for Vector Development

Viruses

Dirk Lindemann¹ 

[1] ¹Institut für Virologie, Medizinische Fakultät “Carl Gustav Carus”, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstr. 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany

关键词: Foamyviruses;    retroviral vectors;    LAD;    Fanconi Anemia;   

DOI  :  10.3390/v3050561

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Spuma- or foamy viruses (FV), endemic in most non-human primates, cats, cattle and horses, comprise a special type of retrovirus that has developed a replication strategy combining features of both retroviruses and hepadnaviruses. Unique features of FVs include an apparent apathogenicity in natural hosts as well as zoonotically infected humans, a reverse transcription of the packaged viral RNA genome late during viral replication resulting in an infectious DNA genome in released FV particles and a special particle release strategy depending capsid and glycoprotein coexpression and specific interaction between both components. In addition, particular features with respect to the integration profile into the host genomic DNA discriminate FV from orthoretroviruses. It appears that some inherent properties of FV vectors set them favorably apart from orthoretroviral vectors and ask for additional basic research on the viruses as well as on the application in Gene Therapy. This review will summarize the current knowledge of FV biology and the development as a gene transfer system.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.