Described herein are constructs used for liver-specific expression of a transgene.

The present invention relates to expression vectors for the heterologous expression of a nucleic acid sequence of interest in mammalian cells, the vectors comprising a chimeric promoter regulatory sequence being operably linked to a nucleic acid sequence to be expressed, wherein the chimeric promoter regulatory sequence comprises a cytomegalovirus promoter sequence derived from murine cytomegalovirus or from human cytomegalovirus and being operably linked to the transcriptional start site of the nucleic acid sequence to be expressed; and a cytomegalovirus upstream region and/or enhancer sequence derived from human and/or the simian cytomegalovirus, wherein the upstream region and/or enhancer sequence is located 5 of and operably linked to the murine or the human promoter sequence, and wherein the chimeric promoter regulatory sequence comprises sequence elements being derived from at least two of the group consisting of murine cytomegalovirus, human cytomegalovirus and simian cytomegalovirus. In particular embodiments, the chimeric promoter regulatory sequence comprises sequence elements derived from the murine or the human cytomegalovirus IE1 promoter and from the human and/or the simian cytomegalovirus IE1 region. The invention also relates to mammalian host cells transfected with such expression vectors, a method for heterologous expression of a nucleic acid sequence in a mammalian host cell by employing such expression vectors, and the use of such expression vectors for the heterologous expression of a nucleic acid sequence.

Disclosed herein are compositions and methods for treating cancer in a subject. This involves administering an oncolytic virus containing a heterologous DNA sequence encoding one or more immunomodulatory and/or immunostimulatory polypeptide(s) of interest to the subject under conditions effective to enhance an anti-tumor immune response in the subject, and to treat cancer. It also relates to a method of enhancing the delivery to and distribution within a tumor mass of therapeutic viruses.

Described herein are constructs used for liver-specific expression of a transgene.

The present invention provides nucleic acid, vectors, viruses, and recombinant cells comprising triple-stranded structures, such as those resulting from central initiation and termination of HIV-1 reverse transcription at the center of HIV-1 linear DNA genomes. These triplex structures can act as a cis-determinant of HIV-1 DNA nuclear import, allowing infection of non-dividing target cells. In one aspect, the presence of the DNA triplex sequence in an HIV vector strongly stimulates gene transfer in hematopoietic stem cells. The invention also provides methods of using these triplex structures for making recombinant cells, as well as methods of using the recombinant cells to express proteins of interest both in vitro and in vivo.

Disclosed herein are compositions and methods for treating cancer in a subject. This involves administering an oncolytic virus containing a heterologous DNA sequence encoding one or more immunomodulatory and/or immunostimulatory polypeptide(s) of interest to the subject under conditions effective to enhance an anti-tumor immune response in the subject, and to treat cancer. It also relates to a method of enhancing the delivery to and distribution within a tumor mass of therapeutic viruses.

A modified adenovirus, in particular Enadenotucirev (EnAd), armed with a bispecific T cell activator comprising at least two binding domains, wherein at least one of the domains is specific for a surface antigen on a T-cell of interest. Also provided are a composition, such as a pharmaceutical formulation comprising the virus, use of the virus and virus formulations for treatment, such as in the treatment of cancer. The disclosure also extends to processes for preparing the virus.

The present disclosure is directed to expression vectors, comprising a weakened SV40 promoter, and recombinant mammalian cells capable of producing high levels of a polypeptide of interest, methods of generating and using such recombinant mammalian cells.

The present disclosure relates to chimeric post-transcriptional regulatory elements (PRE) and vectors useful for expressing a protein in a cell. The PRE contains alpha, beta and optionally gamma subelements selected from different native PRE sequences and are discovered to be more potent than their native counterparts.

Strategies, systems, methods, reagents, and kits for phage-assisted continuous evolution are provided herein. These include strategies, systems, methods, reagents, and kits allowing for stringency modulation to evolve weakly active or inactive biomolecule variants, negative selection of undesired properties, and/or positive selection of desired properties.