Gene therapy has the potential to provide highly selective, curative cancer treatments without inducing systemic toxicity. Adenoviral vectors have been extensively used for cancer gene therapy because of their relatively high efficacy of gene transfer. However, gene transduction to cancer cells is limited by the necessity of using adenoviral type 5 vectors. This is because these vectors have a ...

BACKGROUND Adenoviruses are used extensively to deliver genes into mammalian cells, particularly where there is a requirement for high-level expression of transgene products in cultured cells, or for use as recombinant viral vaccines or in gene therapy. In spite of their usefulness, the construction of adenoviral vectors (AdV) is a cumbersome and lengthy process that is not readily amenable to ...

Human adenoviral vectors are being developed for use in candidate vaccines for HIV-1 and other pathogens. However, this approach suffered a setback when an HIV-1 vaccine using an adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) vector failed to reduce, and might even have increased, the rate of HIV infection in men who were uncircumcised and who had preexisting antibodies specific for Ad5. This increased interest in th...

Viral gene carriers are being widely used as gene transfer systems in (trans)differentiation and reprogramming strategies. Forced expression of key regulators of pancreatic differentiation in stem cells, liver cells, pancreatic duct cells, or cells from the exocrine pancreas, can lead to the initiation of endocrine pancreatic differentiation. While several viral vector systems have been employe...

We have developed a hybrid vector that combines the high transduction efficiency of a gene-deleted adenoviral vector and the integration machinery of the bacteriophage-derived integrase PhiC31 for stable transduction and limited integration sites. We based our system on a two-vector system in which the transgene expression cassette is circularized from a helper-dependent vector by Flp-mediated ...

Our objective was to determine the efficacy of adenoviral-mediated gene therapy with wild-type p53 or p21 in human breast cancer cells and investigate interactions with radiation and chemotherapy. Two human breast cancer cell lines, MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-435, both with p53 mutations, were transduced with adenoviral vectors containing wild-type p53 (Ad5CMV-p53) or p21/WAF1/Cip1 (Ad5CMV-p21), and...

Tumor contamination of bone marrow (BM) and peripheral blood (PB) may affect the outcome of patients receiving high dose chemotherapy with autologous transplantation of hematopoietic stem cell products. In this report, we demonstrate that replication defective adenoviral vectors containing the cytomegalovirus (CMV) or DF3/MUC1 carcinoma-selective promoter can be used to selectively transduce co...

BACKGROUND The prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer is poor. This is mainly caused by the late diagnosis, the aggressive biology and the lack of effective treatment modalities. Adenoviral gene therapy has the potential to selectively treat both primary tumor and (micro)metastatic tissue. METHODS This review provides an overview of what has been achieved so far in the field of adenovir...

BACKGROUND Human adenoviruses are a frequent threat to immunocompromised patients, and disseminated disease is associated with severe morbidity and mortality. Current drugs are not capable of preventing all fatalities, thus indicating the need for alternative treatment strategies. Adenoviruses can be rendered susceptible to antiherpetic prodrugs such as ganciclovir (GCV), upon expression of the...

Interleukins (IL) are cytokines with stimulatory and modulatory functions in the immune system. In this study, we have chosen interleukins which are involved in the enhancement of TH2 responses and B cell functions to analyze their potential to improve a prophylactic adenovirus-based anti-retroviral vaccine with regard to antibody and virus-specific CD4(+) T cell responses. Mice were vaccinated...