Genes ex silico: Computer-designed virus yields phenotype expression benefits
(PhysOrg.com) -- Gene therapy is medicines rising star with adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors nonpathogenic parvoviruses among the most promising supporting actors, due largely to their capability to integrate into transcriptionally silent genomic regions (areas that do not, via RNA polymerases, make a messenger RNA copy of DNA-stored genetic information). That being said, theres been a downside in assembling AAV vectors into adenoviral (Ad) viral backbones, which are used extensively in genetic research and therapy: They rely on replication (Rep) proteins in this study, the Rep 78/68 polypeptide which limit viral amplification methodologies. Recently, however, researchers at Stony Brook University have used computational microbiology to reengineer the Rep gene through synonymous codon pair recoding, a technique in which the meaning of a codon (a set of three base nucleotides) is changed in a dynamic site- or mRNA-specific way that is, it competes and shares expression with...