Retroviral vectors allowing constitutive and Tat-inducible expression of HIV-1 Gag, Pro, RT, Tat and Env mRNA specific hammerhead ribozymes for use in anti-HIV-1 gene therapy. (Research Report)

According to an abstract submitted by the authors to the meeting on Gene Therapy, held September 21-25, 1994, in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, "Hammerhead ribozymes (Rzs) would be ideal for use in anti-HIV-1 gene therapy as they can be designed to specifically cleave the viral RNA in a catalytic manner. MoMuLV-derived pUCMoTN vector was therefore modified to contain an HSV tk-TAR fusion promoter driving neo gene expression. The resulting vector pUCMoTiN vector was shown to allow both constitutive and Tat-inducible gene expression. In this vector, 5 monomeric Rzs designed against highly conserved regions within the HIV-1 Gag, Pro, RT, Tat, and Env coding regions were cloned …