Human cytomegalovirus vectors comprising heterologous antigens are disclosed. The vectors derived from the TR strain, are ganciclovir sensitive, include active US2, US3, US6, US7 and UL131A genes, and have a deleterious or inactivating mutation in the UL82 gene preventing the expression of pp71.

Provided are methods of detecting replication competent virus, e.g., replication competent retrovirus such as gammaretrovirus or lentivirus, in a sample containing a cell transduced with a viral vector particle encoding a recombinant and or heterologous molecule, e.g., heterologous gene product. The methods may include assessing transcription of one or more target genes, such as viral genes, that are expressed in a retrovirus but not expressed in the viral vector particle. Replication competent retrovirus may be determined to be present if the levels of RNA of the one or more target genes is higher than a reference value, which can be measured directly or indirectly, including from a positive control sample containing RNA from the respective target gene at a known level and/or at or above the limit of detection of the assay.

The present disclosure provides virus-like particles (VLPs) comprising: i) a CRISPR-Cas effector polypeptide; ii) a recombinant lentivirus comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding a therapeutic polypeptide having a length of from about 250 amino acids to about 3,000 amino acids, where the VLP comprises a pseudotyping viral glycoprotein and/or a polypeptide that provides for binding to a target cell. The present disclosure provides systems for producing a VLP. The present disclosure provides methods of delivering a therapeutic protein, using a VLP of the present disclosure.

Provided are methods of detecting replication competent virus, e.g., replication competent retrovirus such as gammaretrovirus or lentivirus, in a sample containing a cell transduced with a viral vector particle encoding a recombinant and/or heterologous molecule, e.g., heterologous gene product. The methods may include assessing transcription of one or more target genes, such as viral genes, that are expressed in a retrovirus but not expressed in the viral vector particle. Replication competent retrovirus may be determined to be present if the levels of RNA of the one or more target genes is higher than a reference value, which can be measured directly or indirectly, including from a positive control sample containing RNA from the respective target gene at a known level and/or at or above the limit of detection of the assay.

The present invention relates to a vector for expressing an NC protein of HIV and a method for producing an NC protein using the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a vector for expressing an NC protein of HIV, in which an intron sequence and an mRNA stability element in the downstream of NC gene are sequentially linked, and a method for producing an NC protein using the same. The vector for expressing an NC protein of HIV of the present invention, in which an intron sequence and an mRNA stability element in the downstream of NC gene are sequentially linked, can express a wild type NC protein in animal cells, and has an effect of improving the expression efficiency, as compared to a known art.

Disclosed herein are mosaic conserved region HIV polypeptides and immunogenic polypeptides including one or more of the mosaic conserved region polypeptides. In some embodiments, the immunogenic polypeptides are included in an immunogenic composition, such as a polyvalent immunogenic composition. Also disclosed herein are methods for treating or inhibiting HIV in a subject including administering one or more of the disclosed immunogenic polypeptides or compositions to a subject having or at risk of HIV infection. In some embodiments, the methods include inducing an immune response in a subject comprising administering to the subject at least one of the disclosed immunogenic polypeptides or a nucleic acid encoding at least one of the immunogenic polypeptides.

The subject invention pertains to materials and methods for detecting, preventing and treating retroviral infections in humans and other animals susceptible to infection by retrovirus. It has been discovered that FIV can be transmitted from cats to humans and that the FIV can infect human cells in vivo and that antibodies generated by the infected person cross-react with HIV antigens. Thus, the methods and compositions of the subject invention can be used to detect, prevent and treat FIV infection in humans and other non-feline animals that are susceptible to FIV infection. The methods and compositions of the invention can also be used to prevent and treat infection by HIV in humans.

The present invention relates to retroviral particle comprising a protein derived from the Gag polyprotein, an envelope protein, optionally an integrase and at least two encapsidated non-viral RNAs, the encapsidated non-viral RNAs each comprising an RNA sequence of interest bound to an encapsidation sequence, each encapsidation sequence being recognized by a binding domain introduced into the protein derived from the Gag polyprotein and/or into the integrase, and at least one of said sequences of interest of the encapsidated non-viral RNAs comprises a part coding at least one epitope and/or at least one molecular structure specifically recognizing an epitope.

The invention relates to retroviral producer cell comprising nucleic acid sequences encoding: gag and pol proteins; envelope protein or a functional substitute thereof; amplifiable selection marker; and the RNA genome of the retroviral vector particle, wherein said nucleic acid sequences are all integrated at a single locus within the retroviral producer cell genome. The invention also relates to nucleic acid vectors comprising a non-mammalian origin of replication and the ability to hold at least 25 kilobases (kb) of DNA, characterized in that said nucleic acid vector comprises retroviral nucleic acid sequences encoding: gag and pol proteins, and an env protein or a functional substitute thereof. The nucleic acid vector additionally comprises nucleic acid sequences encoding an amplifiable selection marker. The invention also relates to uses and methods using said nucleic acid vector in order to produce stable retroviral packaging and producer cell lines.

Instead of generating immune responses to several HIV proteins and risk over activating more CD4+ T cells (easy targets for HIV-1 infection) as current candidate vaccines try to do, a lower magnitude, narrowly focused, well maintained virus specific CD8+ T cell response to multiple subtypes should destroy and eliminate a few founder viruses without inducing inflammatory responses that may activate more CD4+ T cells and provide more targets for HIV-1 virus infection. Specifically, described herein is a method that focuses the immune response to the 12 protease cleavage sites.