Simian immunodeficiency virus-Vpx for improving integrase defective lentiviral vector-based vaccines

Background Integrase defective lentiviral vectors (IDLV) represent a promising delivery system for immunization purposes. Human dendritic cells (DC) are the main cell types mediating the immune response and are readily transduced by IDLV, allowing effective triggering of in vitro expansion of antigen-specific primed CD8+ T cells. However, IDLV expression in transduced DC is at lower levels than those of the integrase (IN) competent counterpart, thus requiring further improvement of IDLV for future use in the clinic.