Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) is a lentivirus in the Retroviridae family that causes lifelong infection in domestic cats. The lentivirus of African lions (Panthera leo), referred to as FIVple, is endemic in certain lion populations in eastern and southern Africa. Lentivirus infection leads to immunologic dysfunction and immunosuppressive disease in domestic cats; however, little is known ...

Lentiviruses infect a wide range of mammal species. Much remains unknown about their deep history and host distribution. Here, we report the discovery of an endogenous lentivirus within the genome of the Sunda flying lemur (Galeopterus variegatus) (which we designate "Galeopterus variegatus endogenous lentivirus" [GvaELV]). We estimate the GvaELV genome invasion to have occurred more than 14 Ma...

Ross River virus (RRV) and Semliki Forest virus (SFV) are two alphaviruses that have a high degree of amino acid homology, as well as a very broad host range. We show here that envelope glycoproteins derived from both viruses can pseudotype human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-derived lentivirus vectors. Both RRV and SFV glycoproteins considerably expand the host range of the lentivirus ...

Lentivirus vector systems have been developed for the safe delivery of foreign genes to target tissues. However, the use of these systems for delivering specific proteins to target cells has been largely unexplored. To test this concept, the lentivirus expression plasmid pLenti was utilized to overexpress in producer cells a YFP-fusion protein that is specifically targeted to glycolipid-enriche...

Many researchers are using viruses to deliver genes of interest into the brains of laboratory animals. However, certain target brain cells are not easily infected by viruses. Moreover, the differential tropism of different viruses in monkey brain is not well established. We investigated the cellular tropism of lentivirus and adeno-associated virus (AAV) toward neuron and glia in the brain of cy...

Hydrogels can provide a controllable cell microenvironment for numerous applications in regenerative medicine, and delivery of gene therapy vectors can be employed to enhance their bioactivity. We investigated the delivery of lentiviral vectors from hydrogels, and employed the immobilization of lentivirus to hydroxylapatite (HA) nanoparticles as a means to retain and stabilize vectors within hy...

Here we describe lentivirus-infected cell microarrays for the high-throughput screening of gene function in mammalian cells. To create these arrays, we cultured mammalian cells on glass slides ‘printed’ with lentiviruses pseudotyped as vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein, which encode short hairpin RNA or cDNA. Cells that land on the printed ‘features’ become infected with lentivirus, creat...