Baculoviruses are large rod-shaped DNA-viruses which specifically infect only arthropods, mostly lepidopteran species. Among the over 600 known species, Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) is the most characterized and widely used. The baculovirus genome is poorly transcribed and does not replicate in non-target cells. Thus, baculoviruses are harmless for vertebrates even though they can be found everywhere and we eat them daily on our vegetables. Baculoviruses have been applied in biotechnology for almost a century now, first as biopesticides (since the 1920s), then for recombinant protein production (since the early 1980s), and most recently for gene delivery into vertebrate cells (since the mid-1990s)…
Tag: <span>gene delivery</span>
Vaccines represent the most effective means of disease prevention. A variety of vaccines including live-attenuated strains, inactivated organisms, and subunit forms are currently in use. However, advances in molecular biology, virology and immunology have made new classes of potential vaccines possible. One such class currently being developed by AlphaVax is based on an alphavirus-derived expression system. Alphaviruses are members of the Togaviridae family and have positive-sense RNA genomes. The RNA genome is surrounded by a capsid composed of 240 copies of a single capsid protein. Alphaviruses are enveloped viruses that mature at the plasma membrane of the host cell and are 50-70 nm in diameter. The viral envelope contains 80 trimers composed of two viral glycoproteins, E1 and E2. These trimers contain three E1-E2 heterodimers and are arranged in the viral envelope as spikes which protrude from the surface of the virus particle…
Across many areas of biopharmaceutical development, the goal of consistently transfecting appropriate quantities of DNA into cells has often been a significant bottleneck. Electroporation — a method of temporarily permeabilizing cell membranes by using a short electric pulse — has gained ground in recent years as an effective means of transfection. A cell loading system based on electroporation has been designed for ex vivo cell modification in a clinical setting and for incorporation into cGMP processing applicat
An astonishing range of viruses has provided building blocks for gene delivery systems, from the simple adeno-associated virus with a 5 kb genome to the complex poxviruses with 300 kb. This review focuses on non-replicating viral vectors that infect host cells just once, without producing infections virus. Viral vectors are generally characterized by several criteria, including their ability to integrate into the host genome, coding capacity, titer, toxicity, immunogenicity, host range, duration of gene expression, and transient or stable production systems. These are precisely the features that need to be carefully studied in the context of the application when deciding which vector to use…