What is a self-inactivating lentivirus?
What is a self-inactivating lentivirus?
Self-inactivation relies on the introduction of a deletion in the U3 region of the 3′ long terminal repeat (LTR) of the DNA used to produce the vector RNA. During reverse transcription, this deletion is transferred to the 5′ LTR of the proviral DNA.
What are self-inactivating vectors?
Enhanced safety may be achieved with self-inactivating (SIN) vectors, in which the retroviral promoter is deleted from the LTR. Instead, another viral or cellular promoter is placed internally, downstream of the RNA packaging signal (Ψ) and thus immediately upstream of the cDNA.
Can lentivirus infect human cells?
Lentiviruses are able to transduce dividing and non-dividing cells, allowing them to infect populations such as stem cells, cardiomyocytes and other cardiac cells, without exhibiting an immune response following infection (Fleury et al., 2003; Lyon et al., 2012).
What is lentivirus used for?
Use as gene delivery vectors Lentivirus is primarily a research tool used to introduce a gene product into in vitro systems or animal models. Large-scale collaborative efforts are underway to use lentiviruses to block the expression of a specific gene using RNA interference technology in high-throughput formats.
How do you deal with lentivirus?
Physical Safety Precautions for handling Lentivirus
- Open virus containing microtubes in the biosafety cabinet.
- Best to avoid using sharps or implement additional care to avoid autoinoculation.
- Precaution should be taken when the gene to be introduced is oncogenic or otherwise dangerous to humans.
How do you disinfect lentivirus?
All materials that have come into contact with Lentiviral vectors should be disinfected using a 1:10 bleach solution before disposal. Additionally, all work surfaces must be disinfected with a 1:10 solution of bleach once work is completed and at the end of the work day.
How long does it take for lentivirus to integrate?
All lentiviral vectors present in the transduction mix need at least 5 hours to penetrate the cells of interest. Based on the experiment, the transduction can be left from 5 hours to an overnight incubation.
