Lentivirus Immortalizing Vertebrate Macrophages, (LIVeMac) HJF 512-18

Researchers at Uniformed Services University (USU) and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation (HJF) have developed a replication-deficient, infection competent viral vector for immortalizing mammalian macrophages. On further development, this lentiviral vector could infect all mammalian cells and can immortalize macrophages from diverse species.

Applications and Advantages

Immortalization of mouse, pig and ferret macrophages
An improvement over the replication J2 retroviral vector
LIVeMac uses a safer design in which replication-competent virus is not produced
Of use to screen drug libraries, elucidate the basis of disease and develop novel therapeutics

Innovation Description

Lentiviral vectors are also frequently used in the research setting to alter gene expression through the expression of short hairpin RNA or antisense RNA. Lentiviral vectors can serve as a viable platform for delivering these gene editing tools for therapeutic purposes (Fig.1). Current invention is replication-deficient, infection-competent viral vector for immortalizing mammalian macrophages. The vector is lentivirus-derived and comprises v-myc and v-raf oncogenes expressed from a single multi-cistronic mRNA. The viral vector of the invention is an improvement over the J2 retroviral vector, which is not replication-deficient and only capable of infecting mouse cells, whereas the present vector could be of potential use in human cells. The present invention can also be used to infect peripheral blood macrophages, whereas J2 retroviral required cells from bone marrow.

Fig.1 Schematic of immortalization process