MULTIPLY ATTENUATED LENTIVIRAL VECTOR ACHIEVES EFFICIENT GENE DELIVERY IN-VIVO

Retroviral vectors derived from lentiviruses such as HIV-1 are promisi ng tools for human gene therapy because they mediate the in vivo deliv ery and long-term expression of transgenes in nondividing tissues. We describe an HIV vector system in which the virulence genes env, vif, v pr, vpu, and nef have been deleted. This multiply attenuated vector co nserved the ability to transduce growth-arrested cells and monocyte-de rived macrophages in culture, and could efficiently deliver genes in v ivo into adult neurons. These data demonstrate the potential of lentiv iral vectors in human gene therapy.