Polypeptides comprising a fragment of a teleost invariant chain fused to one or more antigens can enhance T cell response. Alternatively a teleost invariant chain fused to one or more antigens or antigenic fragments thereof can be used. A polynucleotide encoding such polypeptides, vectors comprising such polynucleotides, collection of vectors comprising such polynucleotides are also disclosed. The use of such polypeptides, polynucleotides, vectors for treating or preventing diseases, in particular tumor diseases are also encompassed by the present invention. The teleost invariant chain polypeptides or fragments thereof act as T cell enhancer converting non-immunogenic antigenic sequences into immunogenic T cell antigens.

The invention relates to an adenoviral-based biological delivery and expression system for use in the treatment or prevention of osteoarthritis in human or mammalian joints by long-term inducible gene expression of human or mammalian interleukin-I receptor antagonist (II-1 Ra) in synovial cells, comprising a helper-dependent adenoviral vector containing a nucleic acid sequence encoding for human or mammalian interleukin-I receptor antagonist (II-I Ra), left and right inverted terminal repeats (L ITR and R ITR), the adenoviral packaging signal and non-viral, non-coding stuffer nucleic acid sequences, wherein the expression of the human or mammalian interleukin-I receptor antagonist (II-I Ra) gene within synovial cells is regulated by an inflammation-inducible promoter.

The invention is in the field of delivery of transgenes to target cells using viral vectors, particularly in the field of gene therapy. Compositions have been identified which allow for oral administration of viral particles, particularly adenoviral particles.

The invention is related to an oncolytic adenovirus that comprises a sequence encoding a hyaluronidase enzyme inserted in its genome. This adenovirus spreads more efficiently in the tumour mass and therefore the oncolytic effect is increased. Injecting the oncolytic adenovirus of the invention endovenously, tumour volume regressions are obtained. Therefore the oncolytic adenovirus of the present invention is useful for the treatment of a cancer or a pre-malignant state of cancer.

Immunogenic compositions comprising viral vectors and surfactants are provided. Methods for administration and preparation of such compositions are also provided.

A tropism modified cancer terminator virus (Ad.5/3-CTV; Ad.5/3-CTV-M7) has been found to have infectivity that is Coxsackie Adenoviral Receptor (CAR) independent. The Ad.5/3-CTV (Ad.5/3-CTV-M7) may be used alone or in combination with other therapeutic agents such as agents that augment reactive oxygen (ROS) production, HDAC inhibitors, MCL-1 inhibitors and Bcl-2 inhibitors to treat a variety of cancers particularly including malignant glioma (GBM), renal cancer, prostate cancer, and colorectal cancer.

Methods, compositions and kits for regulating complement activity or treating a complement activity disorder in a subject using soluble, membrane-independent CD59 protein, methods of assaying human macular degeneration (MD), and methods and kits for assaying potential therapeutic agents for treatment of human MD are provided herein.

An adenovirus vector comprising: a pulmonary targeting coding sequence, CRISPR components such as a Cas9 coding sequence, and a guideRNA coding sequence which can be used for gene therapy. The adenovirus can be a gorilla adenovirus, and can include a pulmonary cell targeting sequence such as an MBP targeting ligand coding sequence. The adenovirus can be targeted to pulmonary epithelium with a vascular specific promoter and integrin targeting peptides incorporated into a viral knob. The adenovirus can be used to introduce serum proteins via the pulmonary epithelium. Hemophilia can be treated by adenoviral introduction of factor VIII or factor IX.

The present disclosure provides a replication competent oncolytic adenovirus with selectivity for cancer cells, wherein the adenovirus comprises a transgene under the control of a promoter endogenous to the virus, wherein the transgene comprises a DNA sequence encoding a B7 protein or an active fragment thereof, compositions comprising same, methods of generating the viruses, and use of the viruses and compositions in treatment, particularly in the treatment of cancer.

Steroid acid-peptide conjugates covalently modified for improved stability and/or biological activity are described herein. Covalent modifications include the formation of multimeric compounds comprising at least two steroid acid-peptide monomers covalently bound to one another that behave as new chemical entities, as well as protecting one or more free thiol groups present in the steroid acid-peptide conjugates to improve their stability and/or biological activity.