Vectors--shuttle vehicles for gene therapy.

Gene therapy is being considered for the treatment of various inherited and acquired disorders. The basic premise of this new therapeutic modality is manipulation of gene expression towards a therapeutic end. The early development of the field focused on a technique called ex vivo gene therapy in which autologous cells are genetically manipulated in culture prior to transplantation. Recent advances have stimulated the development of in vivo gene therapy approaches based on direct delivery of the therapeutic gene to cells in vivo. The rate-limiting technologies of gene therapy are the gene delivery vehicles, called vectors, used to accomplish gene transfer. The most efficient vectors are based on recombinant versions of viruses with retroviral vectors serving as prototypes. This viral vector system has been exploited in ex vivo approaches of gene therapy in which cultured, dividing cells are transduced with the recombinant virus resulting in integration of the proviral DNA into the chromosomal DNA of the recipient cell. The use of retroviral vectors in gene therapy has been restricted to ex vivo approaches because of difficulties in purifying the virion and the requirement that the target cell is dividing at the time of transduction. More recently, vectors based on adenoviruses have been developed for in vivo gene therapy. These viruses can be grown in large quantities and highly purified. Importantly, they efficiently transduce the recombinant genome into non-dividing cells. Applications include in vivo gene delivery to a variety of targets such as muscle, lung, liver and the central nervous system. Clinical trials of in vivo delivery with adenoviruses have been undertaken for the treatment of cystic fibrosis.