| abstract |
An adenoviral supervector system is disclosed that is capable of expressing more than 7.5 kilobases of heterologous DNA in a replication defective adenoviral vector. The supervector system comprises an adenoviral vector construct and a helper cell. The vector construct is capable of being replicated and packaged into a virion particle in the helper cell. In particular, the helper cell expresses DNA from the E2 region of the adenovirus 5 genome and complements deletions in that region in the vector construct. In certain embodiments, the disclosed invention comprises tissue specific expression of up to 30 kb of heterologous DNA directed by an adenoviral vector. Also disclosed are methods of transferring heterologous DNA into mammalian cells. |