Adenovirus vectors can efficiently transduce most mammalian cells and exist in host cells as free DNA. The vector system is the preferred method for introducing foreign genes into the body, and is often used for gene therapy and vaccines.
Adenovirus vector is derived from the adenovirus that induces common cold. The genome of wild type adenovirus is linear double stranded DNA.
Adenovirus recombinant vector was constructed and transfected into packaging cells. During the packaging process, the DNA fragments between the two reverse repeat sequences (ITRs) and the viral proteins expressed by the packaging cells are further packaged into viral particles.
When the virus transduces into the host cell, the foreign DNA between the two ITRs and the virus genome enter the cell together and exist in the nucleus as free DNA.
Through modification and optimization, our adenovirus vector lacks E1A, E1B and E3 regions, the former two of which are related to viral packaging (these two genes have been integrated into the genome of packaging cells). Therefore, the viruses packaged with our virus vectors are replication defective (they can only transduce target cells but not self replicate), greatly improving the biological safety.
For more information on adenovirus gene expression vectors, please refer to the following literature.