Why is an adenoviral vector useful as opposed to another type of virus?
The adenovirus has several properties that make it particularly useful as a vector for cardiovascular angiogenic gene therapy. It is large enough to carry the genes needed for angiogenesis as well as the promoters that drive their coding for mRNA and ultimately, protein production in the target cells. It can easily be produced in large numbers and it transfects dividing and non-dividing cells, which is critical for the heart, as the preponderance of cells are terminally differentiated. It also can be engineered to be replication-deficient in order to prevent passage to subsequent cell generations in or out of the heart. Since it resides in the extrachromosomal portion of the nucleus after transfection, it also has little chance of causing insertional mutagenesis, which is disruption of the cellular genome. Another beneficial aspect of the biology of the adenoviral vector is that it is avidly taken up by certain cellular receptors on the endothelial cells and cardiomyocytes, called CAR
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- Why is an adenoviral vector useful as opposed to another type of virus?
