The present invention describes the development of a modified envelope glycoproteins to pseudo-type viruses of the retroviridae family. These are derived from Murine leukaemia virus amphotropic, Gibbon Ape leukaemia virus and feline endogenous virus envelopes.

The improved envelope glycoproteins contain, among other modifications, newly introduced alternative cleavable sequences.

The viral vectors pseudo-typed with these modified envelopes may be suitably employed for cargo delivery such as in gene and cell therapy applications, for the ex vivo and in vivo delivery of gene(s), protein(s), or molecule(s) of interest to a variety of target cells.

The present invention provides a retroviral or lentiviral vector having a viral envelope which comprises: (i) a mitogenic T-cell activating transmembrane protein which comprises a mitogenic domain and a transmembrane domain; and/or (ii) a cytokine-based T-cell activating transmembrane protein which comprises a cytokine domain and a transmembrane domain, wherein the mitogenic or cytokine-based T-cell activating transmembrane protein is not part of a viral envelope glycoprotein. When cells such as T-cells of Natural Killer cells are transduced by such a viral vector, they are simultaneously activated by the mitogenic T-cell activating transmembrane protein and/or the cytokine-based T-cell activating transmembrane protein.

A gene vector comprising a miRNA sequence target.

The present invention provides a retroviral or lentiviral vector having a viral envelope which comprises: (i) a mitogenic T-cell activating transmembrane protein which comprises a mitogenic domain and a transmembrane domain; and/or (ii) a cytokine-based T-cell activating transmembrane protein which comprises a cytokine domain and a transmembrane domain, wherein the mitogenic or cytokine-based T-cell activating transmembrane protein is not part of a viral envelope glycoprotein. When cells such as T-cells of Natural Killer cells are transduced by such a viral vector, they are simultaneously activated by the mitogenic T-cell activating transmembrane protein and/or the cytokine-based T-cell activating transmembrane protein.

The invention provides improved gene therapy vectors, compositions, and methods.

The invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition for targeting drug delivery including gene delivery to lung tissue, comprising at least a therapeutic drug or gene associated to a syncytin protein, and its use in the prevention and/or treatment of lung diseases, in particular in gene therapy of said diseases using lentiviral vector particles or lentivirus-like particles pseudotyped with syncytin protein.

Materials and methods useful for generating highly mannosylated pseudotyped lentiviral vector particles comprising a Vpx protein are provided.

The present invention relates to a new method for successfully inducing the mutation of cell chemokine receptor CCR5 gene into CCR5Δ32 deletion gene by using the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technique. CCR5 is an important co-receptor for entry of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) into human host cells. CCR5Δ32 deletion is a 32-bp deletion in CCR5 coding region, which results in change and premature termination in the sequence following the 185.sup.th amino acid. Biallelic homozygous deletion of CCR5Δ32 is naturally resistant to HIV infection, i.e., the people carrying this mutation can't be infected by HIV. The present invention uses both lentiviral packaging system and the CRISPR technique to induce CCR5Δ32 deletion. Due to the characteristics of a wide range of Lentivirus infection, the invention can be applied to cells such as bone marrow stem cells and CD4+ T cells and can be expected to be the therapeutic drug for HIV/AIDS infection or other diseases.

The present invention provides a retroviral or lentiviral vector having a viral envelope which comprises: (i) a mitogenic T-cell activating transmembrane protein which comprises a mitogenic domain and a transmembrane domain; and/or (ii) a cytokine-based T-cell activating transmembrane protein which comprises a cytokine domain and a transmembrane domain, wherein the mitogenic or cytokine-based T-cell activating transmembrane protein is not part of a viral envelope glycoprotein. When cells such as T-cells of Natural Killer cells are transduced by such a viral vector, they are simultaneously activated by the mitogenic T-cell activating transmembrane protein and/or the cytokine-based T-cell activating transmembrane protein.

The present disclosure provides composition and methods for delivery of therapeutic biologics to locations where bile is present, including the biliary tract, and compositions and kits for use in such methods. Also provided are compositions that include, and methods that employ, biliary-therapeutic enhancers for the delivery of therapeutic biologics. Methods of biliary tract delivery of a therapeutic biologic, as described herein, generally include one or more administrations of the relevant biologic and biliary-therapeutic enhancer Biliary delivery compositions will generally include one or more biliary-therapeutic enhancers and a therapeutic biologic. As compared to the decreased activity of the therapeutic biologic in the presence of bile, the compositions, methods, and kits of the present disclosure result in increased, enhanced and/or rescued activity of the therapeutic in the presence of bile. Use of biliary-therapeutic enhancers, e.g., in the methods, compositions and kits described, are also provided.