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Applications of Adenoviral Vectors (AdV) in CRISPR
Adenoviruses (AdVs) are double-strand DNA viruses that can infect both dividing and non-dividing cells. They have an icosahedral nucleocapsid and no envelope. Its genome is extrachromosomal post-injection, reducing the possibility of off-target effects in CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing. It is flanked by two inverted terminal repeat (ITR) sequences. AdV is a perfect delivery vector for CRISPR applications because of this special feature. Constant efforts are made to maximize AdV's transduction efficiency and low incidence of human symptoms to use it as a gene delivery vector.
CRISPR Integration with Lentiviral Vectors (LV)
The single-stranded RNA spherical virus known as lentivirus (LV) can transduce both non-dividing and proliferating cells. To reduce the amount of live virus particles that form inside cells, modern LV systems split important genes into three plasmids. Since LV integrates into the host genome as a retrovirus and can pseudotype with different viral proteins to enable engineered cellular tropism, there is a chance that insertional mutagenesis will occur unintentionally off-target, which is something to take into account in CRISPR applications.
Using Adeno-Associated Viruses (AAV) to Enhance CRISPR Genes
Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) have shown minimal immunogenicity and toxicity in animal research, which qualifies them for use in gene augmentation therapy clinical trials on humans. AAV DNA is primarily episomal; integrations into particular chromosomal regions are safe and promote long-term gene expression in proliferating cells. Because AAV DNA is episomal and can transduce different cell types effectively, it is a desirable vector for CRISPR-mediated gene augmentation.