Non-integrating viral vector delivers chemotherapy-sensitizing gene to pancreatic cancer cells

(Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News) A novel HIV-based lentiviral vector can introduce a gene to pancreatic tumor cells that makes them more sensitive to the chemotherapeutic drug gemcitabine, without integrating into cellular DNA. This integrase-defective lentiviral delivery system greatly reduces the risk of insertional mutagenesis and replication-competent lentivirus production, as describe in a new study published in Human Gene Therapy.