Publisher's Synopsis
This book is about retrovectors, the gene transfer systems used in 80% of ongoing clinical trials of gene therapy. Retroviruses and cellular retroelements are natural gene transfer materials that have been involved in the dispersal and regulation of genes throughout eons of evolutionary history. The retroelements (so-called because of their unique property of reverse transcribing RNA sequences into DNA and integrating them into a host chromosome) naturally comprise more than a quarter of the DNA in the human genome. They are now being adapted for an important role in gene therapy. Conventional retroviruses and vector helper systems are discussed, as well as more recently developed retrotransposon and synthetic retrovectors.
