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Defective interfering viruses and their potential as antiviral agents
Author(s) -
Marriott A. C.,
Dimmock N. J.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
reviews in medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.06
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1099-1654
pISSN - 1052-9276
DOI - 10.1002/rmv.641
Subject(s) - virus , virology , biology , genome , viral replication , helper virus , gene , mutant , viral interference , rna interference , viral transformation , dna virus , genetics , rna
Defective interfering (DI) virus is simply defined as a spontaneously generated virus mutant from which a critical portion of the virus genome has been deleted. At least one essential gene of the virus is deleted, either in its entirety, or sufficiently to make it non‐functional. The resulting DI genome is then defective for replication in the absence of the product(s) of the deleted gene(s), and its replication requires the presence of the complete functional virus genome to provide the missing functions. In addition to being defective DI virus suppresses production of the helper virus in co‐infected cells, and this process of interference can readily be observed in cultured cells. In some cases, DI virus has been observed to attenuate disease in virus‐infected animals. In this article, we review the properties of DI virus, potential mechanisms of interference and progress in using DI virus (in particular that derived from influenza A virus) as a novel type of antiviral agent. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.