The present invention relates generally to methods and compositions for gene therapy and immunotherapy that activate gamma delta T-cells, and in particular, can be used in the treatment of various cancers and infectious diseases.

The present disclosure provides methods and compositions for genetically modifying lymphocytes and related methods that include genetically modifying T cells and/or NK cells. The methods use replication incompetent recombinant retroviral particles that comprise a pseudotyping element on their surface and optionally a membrane-bound T cell activation element, such as an anti-CD3, and encode one or more engineered signaling polypeptides that can include a lymphoproliferative element, and/or a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR). The methods can include contacting PBMCs with replication incompetent recombinant retroviral particles for various exemplary time periods, such as less than 24 hours or in some illustrative embodiments less than 15 minutes. In some aspects, the present disclosure provides methods and compositions for genetically modifying lymphocytes, for example T cells and/or NK cells, in whole blood or a component thereof. In some embodiments a lymphodepletion filter assembly is used before or after forming a reaction mixture where lymphocytes are contacted with recombinant retroviral particles in a closed system, to genetically modify the lymphocytes.

The present invention provides compositions and methods for inducing DNA breaks in specifically-targeted cells, in particular cancer and HIV-infected cells, thereby promoting cell death.

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

The present disclosure provides methods for genetically modifying lymphocytes and methods for performing adoptive cellular therapy that include transducing T cells and/or NK cells without prior ex vivo stimulation. The methods typically include engineered signaling polypeptides that can include a lymphoproliferative element, and/or a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR), for example a microenvironment restricted CAR. Additional elements of such engineered signaling polypeptides are provided herein, as well as vectors, such as retroviral vectors, packaging cell lines and methods of making the same. Furthermore, recombinant retroviruses and methods of making the same are provided. Numerous controls are provided, including riboswitches that are controlled, for example in vivo, by nucleoside analogues.

Novel forward primer, reverse primer and poly-linker suitable for replication of nucleic acids in e.g., 293 cells.

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

The present invention relates generally to methods and compositions for gene therapy and immunotherapy that activate gamma delta T-cells, and in particular, can be used in the treatment of various cancers and infectious diseases.

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

Provided herein are compositions, systems, and methods for delivering cargo to a target cell. The compositions, systems, and methods comprise one or more polynucleotides encoding one or more LTR retroelement polypeptides for forming a delivery vesicle and one or more capture moieties for packaging a cargo within the delivery vesicle. The one or more LTR retroelement polypeptides for forming a delivery vesicle may comprise two or more of an LTR retroelement gag protein, a retroelement envelope protein, a an LTR retroelement reverse transcriptase, or a combination thereof. The LTR retroelement polypeptide alone, the LTR retroelement envelope protein alone, or both the LTR retroelement-derived polypeptide and LTR retroelement envelope protein may be endogenous.