Open AccessCharacterization of liver specific promoters in a foamy viral vector pMD09
Author(s) -
Ajay Kumar Singh,
Conrad Weber,
Alok Varshney,
Sanjay Gupta,
Syed Naqui Kazim,
Madhusudana Girija Sanal,
Axel Rethwilm,
Shiv Kumar Sarin
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
acta virologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.412
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1336-2305
pISSN - 0001-723X
DOI - 10.4149/av_2019_207
Subject(s) - promoter , biology , virology , microbiology and biotechnology , liver cell , gene expression , gene , hek 293 cells , hepatitis b virus , virus , medicine , genetics
Foamy viruses (FVs) or spumaviruses are retroviruses that are explored as vectors for gene therapy. The good feature of foamy viruses is its broad tropism; however, their infections result in non-targeted gene expression. Here, we attempted to design the liver targeted viral gene delivery by employing liver specific gene promoters like albumin (ALB), transthyretin (TTR) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) promoters. We compared the relative gene expression of liver specific promoters versus the U3 promoter in liver cell line (HepG2) and non-liver cell lines: human fibrosarcoma cell line (HT1080), baby hamster kidney cell line (BHK), human embryonic kidney cell line (HEK 293T) and cervical cancer cell line (HeLa). We have found that the promoter exchange didn't affect viral assembly. The ability to drive gene expression was best with TTR promoter which was followed by HBV and ALB promoter. The use of TTR, HBV and ALB promoters are helpful in achieving liver specific gene expression. Keywords: foamy virus; gene therapy; liver; albumin; transthyretin promoter; HBV promoter.