On the stability of sequences inserted into viral genomes

Willemsen, Anouk; Zwart, Mark P

Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) is a commonly used vaccine vector that has been engineered to express surface proteins from diverse viruses, including Ebola (Garbutt et al. 2004 ), human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) (Johnson et al. 1997) , and influenza A (Roberts et al. 1999) , which can stimulate protective immune responses against these pathogens (Bukreyev et al. 2006 ). In addition, VSV has shown promise as a candidate for oncolytic virus therapy, as it replicates most efficiently in cells with diminished innate immunity such as cancer cells, which often have impaired production of and/or response to interferon (Barber 2005) . Mutations that attenuate VSV growth in healthy immune-competent cells can further enhance the safety of this anti-cancer therapy potential (Barber 2005) .