Establishment of a therapeutic model for retroviral infection using the genetic resistance mechanism of the host.

Resistance to retroviral infection is often regulated by multiple genes that control different aspects of the host-virus interaction. Genetically distinct inbred strains of mice differ in their susceptibility to retrovirus and have allowed the identification of several host-resistant loci that regulate the host defense mechanism to retroviral infection. Using the murine retrovirus infection system, a therapeutic model has been developed of retrovirus infection in association with the resistant mechanism of host genes. The most effective result achieved with the model was when using bone marrow transplantation of retrovirus-resistant cells with receptor interference function, which was genetically defined by the Fv-4 resistant gene. The possible application of these findings to the gene therapy of retrovirus-induced disease of humans is discussed.