Instituto Di Ricerche Di Biologia Molecolare P. Angeletti

Laura Fontana

Paolo Monaci

Recombinant adenoviruses comprising modified fiber proteins which expand the tropism of the adenovirus in comparison to wild-type virus are disclosed. The modified fiber proteins described herein contain a peptide ligand for a cell surface binding site other than CAR comprising a 14 amino acid core sequence containing both fixed and variable amino acid residues. The invention includes isolated nucleic acid molecules encoding the modified adenovirus fiber proteins disclosed, as well as recombinant vectors and host cells containing said nucleic acid molecules. Methods of identifying peptide ligands that bind to cell binding sites other than CAR are included comprising screening a phage-display library of peptide ligands expressed within an adenovirus fiber knob context on CAR-negative cells. Recombinant adenoviruses of the present invention will increase the ability of an adenovirus to transduce important cell and tissue targets as part of a gene therapy/gene vaccination regime that have been shown to be refractory to adenoviral infection.

Growing community of inventors

Pomezia, Italy

Laura Fontana