Lentivirus Vector - Lentivirus Production - BrainCase (lentivirus vector，LV)

About Lentivirus vector

Lentivirus vector (LV) belongs to the retroviridae family and is an RNA virus. Different from general retroviral vectors, it has the ability to infect both dividing cells and non-dividing cells. The research on lentiviral vectors is developing rapidly, and the research is also very in-depth. The vector can effectively integrate the foreign gene into the host chromosome, so as to achieve persistent expression.

The lentivirus vector commonly used in laboratories is developed based on HIV-1 (Human Immunodeficiency Virus 1) and serves as a gene therapy vector. It offers advantages such as a broad spectrum of infection, effective transduction of both dividing and non-dividing cells, and long-term stable expression of exogenous genes, making it a powerful tool for gene delivery. The lentiviral system is now widely employed in various cell lines for gene overexpression, RNA interference, microRNA research, and in vivo animal experiments. During the process of integrating into the host genome, retroviruses like MLV (Murine Leukemia Virus) typically have approximately 20% of integration events occurring near the 5' end of transcription units, showing a tendency towards CpG islands and DNase I hypersensitive sites. In contrast, lentiviral vectors tend to integrate into sites distant from the transcription start site. Therefore, compared to retroviral vectors, lentiviral vectors appear to have a lower risk of carcinogenesis and may be safer for clinical applications.

In terms of infection ability, it can effectively infect various types of cells such as neuron cells, liver cells, cardiomyocytes, tumor cells, endothelial cells, stem cells, etc., so as to achieve good gene therapy effects. Clinical research has been carried out in the United States, and the effect is very good Ideal, so it has broad application prospects.

Advantages

Compared with other virus tools, lentivirus has the following advantages:

Long expression time: Lentivirus can achieve long-term and stable expression of the target gene by integrating foreign genes into the host cell genome, and will not be lost with cell division and passage, which is the first choice for cell experiments;
High safety: No pathogenicity has been found, and it has been used in CAR-T therapy to act on human body;
Low immunogenicity: direct injection of living tissue is not easy to cause immune reaction, suitable for animal experiments.