Abstract
Viruses have become extensively studied over the decade not just for decoding their complex structures but also to understand disease pathways and for the treatment of various diseases as well. The advent of recombinant technology has allowed viruses to be used as vectors in gene therapy, which is the treating of diseases by inserting/deleting genes. One such virus which has risen to prominence because of its flexibility in terms of usage and its versatility in regard to organisms is the adenovirus. This review will elaborate the remarkable progress that has been made with these vectors in the past decade, shortcomings involved in the entire process as well as current biological strategies employed in utilizing adenovirus mediated gene therapy.
Highlights
Adenoviruses are icosahedral viruses of size 90 to 100nm
We have found increased apoptosis cell death in breast cancer cell lines treated with a combination of adenoviral vectors with the E2F-1 transcription factor gene plus paclitaxel and doxorubicin indicating a strong synergistic effect [15]
The chronic infection usually infects the lymphoid tissues and causes no external symptoms. There exists another type of interaction, which is oncogenic within rodents, when an adenovirus integrates its own DNA into the host DNA and produces E1A proteins, altering transcription, deregulating apoptosis and forming malignant tumors by activating ras or c-src signaling, polyoma middle T protein [31]
Summary
Adenoviruses are icosahedral viruses of size 90 to 100nm. Their structure is composed of 252 capsomeres with 240 hexons and 12 pentons at the vertices of the icosahedral. The adenovirus genome consists of linear, non-segmented double stranded DNA ranging between 26 and 45 Kbp and consists of about 22-40 distinct genes [2]. Toxic action of the pentons causes rupture of the vacuole releasing the virus into the cytoplasm. This is followed by the cytosolic transport to the nucleus transportation by the interaction between hexon and microtubules. The E1A gene E1A induces cells into S phase One yields a 289 a/a long E1A and the second one yields a 243 a/a long E1A [3] These two proteins are powerful transcriptional activators for several viral and cellular genes. Infants fall risk to pharyngitis, pneumonia etc., caused by adenoviruses [4]
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