Development of a replication-competent lentivirus assay for dendritic cell-targeting lentiviral vectors.

It is a current regulatory requirement to demonstrate absence of detectable replication-competent lentivirus (RCL) in lentiviral vector products prior to use in clinical trials. Immune Design previously described an HIV-1-based integration-deficient lentiviral vector for use in cancer immunotherapy (VP02). VP02 is enveloped with E1001, a modified Sindbis virus glycoprotein which targets dendritic cell-specific intercellular adhesion molecule-3-grabbing non-integrin (DC-SIGN) expressed on dendritic cells in vivo.

Development of an equine-tropic replication-competent lentivirus assay for equine infectious anemia virus-based lentiviral vectors.

The release of lentiviral vectors for clinical use requires the testing of vector material, production cells, and, if applicable, ex vivo-transduced cells for the presence of replication-competent lentivirus (RCL). Vectors derived from the nonprimate lentivirus equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) have been directly administered to patients in several clinical trials, with no toxicity observed to date. Because EIAV does not replicate in human cells, and because putative RCLs derived from vector components within human vector production cells would most likely be human cell-tropic, we previously developed an RCL assay using amphotropic murine leukemia virus (MLV) as a surrogate positive control and human cells as RCL amplification/indicator cells.

Use of a highly sensitive strand-specific quantitative PCR to identify abortive replication in the mouse model of respiratory syncytial virus disease.

Background: The BALB/c mouse is commonly used to study RSV infection and disease. However, despite the many advantages of this well-characterised model, the inoculum is large, viral replication is restricted and only a very small amount of virus can be recovered from infected animals. A key question in this model is the fate of the administered virus.

Coelomic expression of a novel bone morphogenetic protein in regenerating arms of the brittle star Amphiura filiformis.

The bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are a family of signalling molecules involved in numerous developmental processes including cell fate determination in embryonic ectoderm of vertebrate and invertebrate species. Recently, published evidence has indicated that BMPs are involved in echinoderm adult tissue regeneration. We have cloned a novel member of the BMP2/4 subfamily from the ophiuroid echinoderm Amphiura filiformis, which we have named afBMP2/4.

Novel estrogen receptor-related Transcripts in Marisa cornuarietis; a freshwater snail with reported sensitivity to estrogenic chemicals.

We have isolated novel molluskan steroid receptor transcripts orthologous to vertebrate estrogen receptors (ERs) and estrogen receptor-related receptors (ERRs) from the freshwater snail Marisa cornuarietis. Radiolabeled ligand binding analyses showed that neither recombinant receptor protein specifically bound 17beta-estradiol over the range applied (0.3-9.