Application of Herpesvirus Saimiri as an Alternative Gene Therapy Vector
Abstract
Herpesvirus saimiri is the prototype rhadinovirus and is closely related to human Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus. Herpesvirus saimiri strains of subgroup C transduce a broad spectrum of cancer cells and primary cells including human T lymphocytes very efficiently and enable stable transgene expression. Herpesvirus saimiri as a gene therapy vector is favorable because of its large packaging capacity, extensive cell tropism, and long-termed persistence as non-integrating episomes and thus exhibits numerous advantages over commonly used viral vectors. In order to use Herpesvirus saimiri as a secure and versatile gene therapy vehicle, it should be easily manipulated and modified. The recent advances in molecular cloning of large genomic fragments such as virus genomes as bacterial artificial chromosomes facilitated the functional studies and manipulation of herpesviruses using the recombination system of bacteria. Among these, red-recombination based “en passant” mutagenesis method enables seamless genome modification such as deletion, insertion and point mutation very easily and efficiently.
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